Minister for Business Development, Dr Ibrahim Mohammed Awal has charged Guinness Ghana Breweries Limited (GGBL) to strive towards sourcing all its raw materials from Ghanaian farmers from the next three to five years.
He said although it was worth commending GGBL for currently acquiring between 55 and 70% of its raw materials locally, an optimum 100% local sourcing would help Ghanaian farmers and the economy at large by creating jobs.
“While commending you for sourcing some of your materials from Ghana, I think that you must source 100% raw materials from Ghanaian farmers so that we can keep the jobs of the Ghanaian farmers,” Dr Awal said.
He noted that government has projects such as the ‘Planting for Food and Jobs’, under which it supports farmers by subsidising fertiliser and seeds, thus a guaranteed market from a company like Guinness Ghana would only boost the morale of the farmers to do more.
“Please go beyond your 55% of sourcing locally to 100%, if you can do that in the next three to five years. That would be very good for Ghanaian farmers and Ghanaian people by creating jobs for them,” he reiterated.
Dr Awal made this request at the launch of Guinness Ghana Breweries’ ‘YƐn Nyin Mbom’ initiative.
The initiative is to reward GGBL’s stakeholders – wholesalers and retailers – for their hard work and continuous support to promote GGBL’s various drink brands.
According to Dr Awal, it is important that companies frequently appreciate those who help them to grow, hence the ‘YƐn Nyin Mbom’ initiative by GGBL is laudable.
“A company that recognises its customers and partners is worth celebrating. For us as government, all we can do is to make sure that we create the space for private sector to create the jobs. We are committed to make sure that the business environment is promoted so that companies like Guinness can operate, can expand, and can employ people,” he noted.
Dr Awal also urged GGBL and other multinationals to expand their businesses so they can pay more taxes to the government.
He said government needs taxes to develop the country and that Ghana’s tax-to-GDP of 12% was well below the West African average of 19%, and that is not good enough for the country.
“I, therefore, want to urge Guinness and other businesses in the country to honour their tax obligations. We want to develop the schools; we want to develop the hospitals; we want to develop the roads, so Guinness you might be doing well, but can you up your tax payments,” Dr Awal said.
Source: The Finder
