By Kodjo Adams,GNA
Accra, Jan. 16, GNA - Unilever Ghana had so far invested over GH¢60 million in new infrastructure and factory plants over the last two years to augment its operations in delivering quality and efficient services to customers.
The infrastructure plants are the personal care dryer, Biomass Boiler, Orals factory, highly modernised effluent treatment plant, and the continuous saponification plant.
Mrs Gladys Amoah, the Managing Director of Unilever Ghana, said this on Tuesday in Tema, at the commissioning of the company’s three new plants- Biomas Boiler, Oral Factory and the Personal Care Dryer.
She explained that the Biomas Boiler has the capacity to generate eight tons of steam per hour and designed to use palm kernel shells as fuel, aimed at eliminating totally the use of Residual Fuel Oil or diesel as fuel for factory operations.
Touching on the Oral Factory, she said the company had largely depended on imports to service its orals business, which comprised the entire Oral Stock Keeping unit of Pepsodent Cavity Fighter and Close-up Deep Action.
She said investing in the new Oral factory would increase the company's response rate to the high demand and position the business to effectively harness the growing opportunities in the market.
"The new Oral Factory will on-shore a reactive capacity of 40 per cent orals volumes, especially for Pepsodent and Close-up products to reduce dependence on imports from other countries," she said.
Mrs Amoah said the installation of the Personal Care Dryer is to support operations at the factory with the capacity of six Tonnage Per Hour to produce enough toilet soap noodles to service demand from the West African sub-region.
She said these investments had translated into jobs for local suppliers and local workforce in the country.
"We are currently sourcing over 90 per cent of our packaging materials from Ghana and have less to 400 staff, directly in our employment, with about 62,000 indirectly employed including retail, wholesale and market sellers for their livelihood", she added.
She said Unilever Sustainable Living Plan enjoins the company to work towards improving the health and hygiene needs of people, reduce the environmental impact of its activities and enhance the livelihood of people.
Mrs Amoah said the company's commitment did not only rely on the manufacturing of products, but had extensive programmes to improve the health, hygiene and well-being of customers
"This is seen in our Hi-5 hand washing campaign that teaches people to wash their hands five times-before breakfast, before lunch, before supper and after visiting the place of convenience and daily baths".
She said research had shown that hand washing was the best vaccine against germs, and a useful tool in the fight against diseases such as diarrhoea and dysentery, contributing towards the achievement of the UN Sustainable Development Goals three, which speaks to Good Health and Well-being.
The Managing Director said the company had chosen to support the fight against diseases using the Lifebouy soap which is formulated to fight germs and have touched over 3.3 million people, as at the end of 2018.
She said the company's campaign to Ghanaian to brush their teeth twice a day had touched over 4.4 million people as at the end of 2018.
"We have recently introduced a Livelihood Empowerment project in the Upper West Region, where 100 women have been supported with a product loan of assorted Unilever products. We expect them to sell, keep the profit and use the capital to restock".
She said the company would continue with its effort at ensuring a state-of-the-art factory to guarantee quality products.
Mr Alan Kyeremanten, the Minister of Trade and Industry, commended Unilever Ghana for the initiative, which would lead to job opportunity and revenue mobilisation.
He pledged government support in creating an enabling environment for private businesses to thrive and lauded Unilever Ghana’s significant contribution in stimulating the development of Small and Medium Enterprises in the country.
GNA
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