The new Board of Directors, management and some staff of adbbank on Friday embarked on a tour of the Ekumfi Fruits and Juices Factory here in the Central Region.
The tour was to enable the officials of the bank to get first-hand information on how a facility extended by the bank to the company had been utilised, as well as to enable them to familiarise themselves with the operations of the company.
The team from the adb and the distributors of the company’s product expressed their satisfaction after inspecting a 1,000-acre pineapple plantation of the company.
In an interaction with the media after their tour, the Board Chairman of the bank, Daasebre Akuamoah Agyapong II, stated that Farm Direct Limited, producers of the raw materials for Eku juice was of unique interest to the bank, considering the fact that it had helped create many jobs for the youth in the catchment areas of the factory, hence curbing rural-urban migration menace.
He said as a bank with its focus on agribusiness, it would continue to fund the One District One Factory (IDIF) initiatives through its out-grower schemes, aimed at helping industries such as the IDIF to operate at their full capacities.
“adb has so far disbursed a total 17 companies under the One District One Factory Initiative (IDIF) in the areas of agro processing, aquaculture, poultry, construction and manufacturing,” he noted.
He gave an assurance that the bank would increase its financial commitment to the Ekumfi Fruits and Juices Limited to enable it build a stronger and more resilient raw material base to keep production at 100 percent.
The Managing Director of the bank, Dr John Kofi Mensah, said the bank offers support to Ghanaians who were into agribusiness by financing out-grower schemes under the IDIF initiative.
He said as an agricultural focused bank, it was instituting pragmatic measures to increase its visibility in the agricultural space.
The measures, he said, would go a long way to create more sustainable jobs and help cut down on the importation of fruit juice products into the country.
“As an agriculture focused bank, our target is to finance out-grower schemes for the One District One Factory Initiative. That is, the factories and the industries that are being established, we want to fund the input base,” Dr Mensah noted.
He added that so far, “We have already pumped GH₵ 30million into an out-grower scheme for farmers in pineapple production made up of 10 tractors, 2 bull dozers, 2 delivery trucks and 1 trailer.
The Director of Operation of Ekumfi Fruit and Juices Factory, Mr Frederick Kobynna Acquaah, expressed gratitude to the management of bank for their support since the establishment of the factory.
He said the factory was working assiduously to make sure that they produced nothing but the best for its consumers.
He hinted that the company would introduce two new products-pineapple beer and pineapple shandy, next year.
From Benedicta Gyimaah Folley, Ekumfi Nanaben
