President Akufo-Addo has inspected the site of Best Fertilizer Company Limited, one of the companies operating under government’s “One District One Factory” (1D1F) programme, located at Asankare in the Ashanti region.
President Akufo-Addo visited the project site on the 2nd day of his 2-day tour of the Ashanti Region.
The company was incorporated in 2018 and headquartered in East Legon, Accra. The principal activity of the company is the manufacturing of foliar fertilizers, organic fertilizers, custom and special fertilizer blends for specific crops (examples – cashew, cocoa, coconut, maize, cowpeas, vegetables, mangoes etc.) needs in different agro-ecological zones in the country.
The project was initiated under the One-District-One-Factory initiative of the Government of Ghana.
The President was accompanied by Dr. Owusu Afriyie Akoto, Minister of Food and Agriculture, Mr. Alan Kyeremanten, Minister of Trade and Industry, and Mr. Simon Osei-Mensah, Ashanti Regional Minister.
According to Mr. John Osei-Bonsu, Managing Director, the company is wholly-owned Ghanaian company and will have one of the most modern, fully automated fertilizer plant in the country. “The company will start operations in January 2021 and I’m appealing to the President to put it in his diary to come back to commission the factory in January after his inauguration, God willing”.
Sited on 15.3 acre land, the construction of the 15,000 sq.ft. phase one of main factory is complete and a 20,000 sq. ft. warehouse 85% completed. The company expects to start producing various blends of fertilizers at the beginning of the 2021 Planting seasons with a planned capacity to produce 300,000 metric tons of various blends of foliar, organic, custom and specific fertilizer blends per year when fully operational.
Mr. Osei-Bonsu informed that, all the necessary regulatory permits (Town & Country Planning, Environmental Protection Agency, Plant Protection and Regulatory Services Directorate of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture, Fire Service etc.) needed for the construction of the factory as well as manufacturing and distributing fertilizers in the country have been obtained/to be obtained once production operations starts.
In his interaction with the promoters of the company, the President expressed his satisfaction with the progress of work on the site of the project, especially as local raw materials are going to be used to produce some of the company’s core products.
It is expected that employment opportunities will be offered to residents of Asankare and the surrounding communities particularly the youth, with direct employment being offered to 180 people, and the creation of some 450 indirect job.
The Minister of Trade and Industry, Mr. Alan Kyeremanten said the inspection of the project at Asankare was a clear testimony of the government’s intention of spreading industrialization across the country and bringing prosperity to all communities as well. He announced that as part of the government’s initiative to promote industrialization in the country, incentives Best Fertilizer Company Limited will benefit from include duty free status for importing machinery and equipment, duty free for importing all raw materials for the Company, a Five-year tax holiday to be extended on application, which could be extended after the period. In addition there would be subsidy of 50% on the interest of loan the company borrow from any of the participating banks.