Out of over 200 people who applied for funding from McDan to produce hand sanitizers, only 4 are using local raw materials
The Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of McDan Group of Companies, Dr. Daniel McKorley is heartbroken and disappointed at the over dependence on imported raw materials by Ghanaian entrepreneurs.
BestNewsGH.com can report that Dr. McKorley’s disappointment stems from the fact that out of the over 200 entrepreneurs who applied to the McDan Foundation for funding to produce hand sanitizers locally, only 4 of them indicated they were going to use local raw materials.
The Business Magnate who announced an emergency funding for entrepreneurs interested in producing hand sanitizers with local raw materials, met over 200 entrepreneurs yesterday,Wednesday, March 18, 2020 with his team of experts, where the various proposals were vetted.
In announcing the emergency funding, Dr. McKorley was explicit that he wanted people who were willing to use local raw materials like akpeteshie to produce the hand sanitizers.
But a disappointed Dr. McKorley tells BestNewsGH.com in an interview that the trend where Ghanaian businesses overly rely on foreign raw materials is disheartening and worrying.
‘’Yesterday, I spoke over 200 people who need funding to produce the hand sanitizers. Out of over 200 people, only 4 are using local based ingredients. I was a bit sad about it. Everything they are using is imported. Only 4 are using alcohol from akpeteshie, palmwine and other things. Everybody else is combining imported chemicals. The alcohol is imported, aloe vera imported and they are just mixing them.’’ Dr. McKorley lamented.
He continued that ‘’It is very sad. Imagine the ports are closed and we don’t have any importation, that means there is no way we can get sanitizers in this country. We always resort to a very lazy way of living and it is about time we all get up as a country, as businessmen, chemists, pharmacists, the Universities, research institutions and all that, because akpeteshie is a very potent acohol based ingredient for producing sanitizers.’’
Dr. McKorley described the decision to provide funding for the production of hand sanitizers as an emergency and timely intervention to help bridge the deficit of artificial shortage created in the system due the outbreak of Covid-19, said the Food and Drugs Authority has been roped in to test samples for regulatory compliance purposes.
BestNewsGH.com reports him as positing that “Once approved, funding will be made available to the potential business idea for production. This initiative will not only empower our local businesses, but also create jobs for the teeming youth”
It is Dr. McKorley’s expectation that those that will be selected eventually and supported with funding, will produce not only for the Ghanaian market, but for export to other markets within the African continent.
Source: BestNewsGH.com
