Some senior officials and board members of the Ghana Exim Bank (GEB) have toured some pharmaceutical companies in Accra being funded by the bank under the One District One Factory (1D1F) initiative.
The objective of the tour was to ascertain the level of completion of the companies and their preparedness to begin production.
The companies included Atlantic Life Sciences, a subsidiary of Pharmanova, Ernest Chemist Limited, European Union Good Management Practices Pharmaceutical Plant, and Tobinco Pharmaceuticals Limited.
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the GEB, Mr Lawrence Agyinsam, who led the tour on Friday, in an interview stated that the tour was to help the management staff and the board of the bank to assess the level of completion of the companies as well as to be updated on the utilisation of the funds given the companies.
“We are here to offer moral support to the management of the companies we are supporting so that together we can all achieve the 1D1F initiative instituted by government,” he added.
The CEO of Pharmanova, Mr Dhananjay Tripathi, Atlantic Life Sciences said the company would focus on the production of vaccines and eye drop.
He said work on the project was 80 per cent and would be completed by the end of September this year.
“We plan to hire 300 workers and will produce about 160,000 bottles of eye drop a day,” he added.
At Ernest Chemist Limited, the CEO, Mr Ernest Bediako, stated that the state-of-the-art pharmaceutical plant being constructed under the IDIF programme would be completed by the end of the year.
He said the plant would be certified by the World Health Organisation, European Union and the Food and Drugs Authority and would have the capacity to employ 500 personnel.
Mr Bediako said the plant will go into the production of infusions, syrups, tablets, eye, nose and ear drops.
The Executive Chairman of Tobinco Pharmaceutical Limited, Mr Samuel Amo Tobbin thanked GEB for supporting Tobinco Pharmaceuticals Limited to convert three of the eight warehouses of the company into manufacturing plant to produce injectables and hand sanitiser.
The Board Chairman of GEB, Mr Kwadwo Boateng Genfi commended the management of the various companies for their hard work, saying work was progressing well on each of the plant.
He stated that funds would soon be released to meet the deadline for the construction of the plants.
BY FREDERICK GADESE-MENSAH
