SOCIETE GENERALE GHANA REFURBISHES 6TH FLOOR OF KORLE BU SURGICAL DEPARTMENT

Accra - Ghana, Friday 6^th October, 2023

Figure 1: Management of SG Ghana and Korle-Bu cutting the ribbon to commission the newly refurbished floor

The 6^th floor of the Korle Bu Surgical Unit has undergone a transformative refurbishment bringing it up to modern standards and making it a conducive environment for the rejuvenation and healing of patients. The entire refurbishment was undertaken by Societe Generale Ghana PLC as part of activities to mark the bank’s 20^th anniversary celebration. The project was a manifestation of the anniversary theme “20 years with You”, a testament to the bank’s commitment to customers and the Ghanaian society at large.

Societe Generale Ghana as part of its support for the country’s developmental agenda and Government’s 1-District-1-Factory initiative has financed the new Premium Foods factory located at Kwaso-Ejisu in the Ashanti Region to the tune of $12million. The new Kwaso Factory of Premium Foods was commissioned by the President, His Excellency, Nana Akuffo-Addo on Thursday 17th June 2021. The Bank provided Premium Foods with loans totaling 12 million USD for the factory, key among which was the 2.5 million USD loan to finance the Company’s 2 megawatts solar farm under the Bank’s Green Financing initiative.

The company’s new state-of-the-art manufacturing facility in Kwaso, with a capacity to blend over 96,000 metric tonnes of maize, soybean, sorghum and millet annually is among the few of its kind with this capacity in the West African Sub-Region. The new factory has directly provided 120 jobs and impacted the lives of over 15,000 out-growers and rural farmers in the region. It is expected that the new Obaasima Project from this new factory will provide over a 100,000 jobs in the value chain.

Welcoming the distinguished Guests and the Media to the event, the Managing Director of Premium Foods – Mr. Tom Gambrah stated that, “This innovation will greatly improve the Agricultural Value Chain especially in the Rural Folk within the region.” Mr. Gambrah said that the company had partnered the Government under the 1-District-1-Factory initiative to expand the new factory’s capacity and reach.

Speaking at the event, His Excellency President Nana Akuffo Addo, stated that “The new factory is a concrete manifestation that the new paradigm of economic development of insisting on value addition industrial activities within a conducive and business friendly environment is making headway.”

“The launching of this new factory is in fulfilment of the promise by government, in partnership with the private sector, to set up at least one medium to large scale enterprise in every district of Ghana” He added.

The Honourable Minister of Trade and Industry, Mr. Alan Kyerematen commended the collaboration between the Canadian Government, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), USAID, AGRA, DFID and the John Agyekum Kufuor Foundation and the local financial partners, which included Societe Generale Ghana Plc for providing financial and technical support respectively.

Premium Foods Limited, which has been operating for over 25 years, has supplied blended fortified and non-fortified products and ingredients to global organizations over the years. International Relief Organizations, and Multinational Food and Beverage manufacturing companies across Africa including “Feed the Future” programme, under the US Government’s Global Hunger & Food Security Initiative are some of the beneficiaries.

The company now has 2 factories at Jachie and Kwaso with a combined operating capacity of 133,440 metric tonnes annually to blend maize, soya and millet.

For Societe Generale Ghana, this project is a concrete achievement of our strategy to provide support to local businesses and a typical illustration of our focus on financing projects with positive impact: job creation, sustainable energy and affordable food for rural communities.