1D1F: Akufo-Addo inspects two factories in Walewale
President Akufo-Addo, on Tuesday, June 22, inspected two local factories under the One-District-One Factory policy in Walewale in the North East Region.
President Akufo-Addo visited Champion Foods and Beverages Limited, a wholly-owned Ghanaian beverage manufacturing, distribution and marketing company.
The company is employing PET line technology, compared to the Tetra Packs technology, and it is being financed with a facility from the Ghana EXIM Bank.
President Akufo-Addo informed the public that the overall project is 90% complete, with minor construction works to be undertaken.
Offices and staff accommodation are at 80% completion, while plant, equipment, and machinery are all on-site ready to be installed.
Full operationalisation of the factory has been deferred to March 2022.
The capacity of the company is estimated at 10 metric tonnes per hour facility.
It is expected that, upon completion, the company would create direct employment opportunities for 300 Ghanaians and over 2,000 indirect workers, including farmers and aggregators.
They would be engaged in an out-grower scheme, covering parts of North East, Northern, and other countries.
He expressed satisfaction with work so far undertaken on the construction of a GH¢36 million watermelon juice factory, which the Vice President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, cut sod for work to begin on the construction in 2019.
The factory is expected to reduce the yearly ritual of huge post-harvest losses in the watermelon growing enclave of Walewale and its surrounding towns and villages and help improve the lives of the citizens.
The President also visited Tamanaa Company Ltd., a rice farming and processing company located in Nasia near Walewale, operating under the government’s One-District-One-Factory initiative.
As a result of the support received from the government, the company has been able to expand its operations by adding a 250-metric ton per day rice milling facility to its already existing 40 metric ton per day plant.
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So far, some 148 workers have been employed, with the company generating a turnover of some $1.5 million annually.
The company markets 60% of its rice as parboiled and the remaining 40% as non-parboiled under Nasia Star Rice’s brand name.
Tamanaa company currently engages over 4,000 rice farmers and aggregators operating in the West Mamprusi, East Mamprusi, Savulugu, Nanton and Mamprugu-Moagduri Districts.