Vice President John Mahama
Government says it has established a project that will offer opportunities to farmers to produce raw materials to feed domestic industries and other agro-businesses in the country.
The Ghana Commercial Agricultural Project (GCAP), established in collaboration with the World Bank, is expected to help reduce poverty, Vice President John Mahama stated.
He disclosed this while commissioning a GH¢2 million brewing plant of Accra Brewery Limited (ABL) to produce Chibuku, a locally-produced beer.
The production of Chibuku started on a pilot basis some two years ago in South Africa. With the establishment of the plant in Ghana, both domestic and external markets would be catered for as far as the distribution of Chibuku is concerned.
According to Vice President Mahama, government will use a considerable part of the Chinese loan facility to irrigate 11,000 hectares of the Accra Plains to improve agricultural production.
ABL’s use of local ingredients for the production of the alcoholic beverage is expected to provide jobs to over 7,000 maize and sorghum farmers in the Northern, Upper East and Upper West, Brong Ahafo and Volta regions.
Greg Metcalf, Managing Director (MD) of ABL, noted that the beverage will soon flood the market in sachets to engender affordability.
Mark Bowman, MD of South African Brewery Millers in charge of Africa, in a remark, said the plant will spur on subsistence farmers to improve their production to commercial levels and help sustain the brewery in Ghana.
He said it will create more jobs by churning out new beverages on the Ghanaian market.
By Samuel Boadi
