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, is expected to commence operation in January, 2021.
Incorporated in 2018 and headquartered in East Legon, Accra, the company has as its principal activity the manufacturing of foliar fertilisers, organic fertilisers, customised and special fertiliser blends for specific crops such as cashew, cocoa, coconut, maize, cowpeas, vegetables, and mangoes in different agro-ecological zones in the country.
Mr John Osei-Bonsu, Managing Director of the company, who disclosed this, said the company was wholly-owned Ghanaian one and would have one of the most modern, fully-automated fertiliser plants in the country.
He was speaking here when the President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo inspected the site for the 1D1F project in Asankare.
The President was accompanied by Dr Owusu Afriyie Akoto, Minister of Food and Agriculture, Mr Alan Kyerematen, Minister of Trade and Industry, and Mr Simon Osei-Mensah, Ashanti Regional Minister.
“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,” Mr Osei-Bonsu said.
Sited on 15.3 acre land, the 15,000-square-foot factory in the phase one of the project is completed and a 20,000-square-foot warehouse is 85 percent completed.
Mr Osei-Bonsu said the company expected to start producing various blends of fertilisers at the beginning of the 2021 planting season with a planned capacity to produce 300,000 metric tons of various blends per year when fully operational.
He said all the regulatory requirements needed for the construction of the factory, as well as manufacturing and distributing fertilisers in the country, had been obtained.
In his interaction with the promoters of the company, President Nana Akufo-Addo expressed satisfaction with the progress of work, and commended the fact that local raw materials were 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 jobs,” the President said.
The Minister of Trade and Industry, Mr Alan Kyerematen, said the inspection of the project at Asankare was a clear testimony of the government’s intention of spreading industrialisation across the country and bringing prosperity to all communities as well.
He announced that the company had been granted a five-year duty-free status for importing machinery, equipment and raw materials.
By Times Reporter
