Tamale, June 13, GNA - Over 5,000 residents in the Northern Region have signed a petition calling on the Minister for Gender, Children and Social Protection to negotiate with Alafei Foods to supply food to school children under the Ghana School Feeding Programme (GSFP).
People from all walks of life signed the petition demanding the Minister to sign the non-binding letter of intent to assure of the willingness of the GSFP to purchase Alafei Foods’ vegetable sauce containing textured soya protein (TSP) for distribution to 150,000 school children in the region.
Alafei Foods intends to use the non-binding letter of intent to secure funding to the tune of GHc156 million to establish a soya meat manufacturing facility at Yendi and partner 30,000 smallholder farmers, majority being females, to grow soybeans and vegetables in the region.
The soybeans and vegetables to be grown will be processed at the factory into TSP and distributed to school children under the GSFP.
Mr Claude Convisser, Managing Director of Alafei Foods, who presented the petition to the Northern Regional Office of the GSFP in Tamale for onward submission to the Minister, said the Minister’s signing of the non-binding letter of intent would give meaning to the government’s programme of One-District One-Factory to promote production and reduce unemployment.
Mr Convisser said within two years of its operations, the factory would create 500 direct jobs adding the TSP or soya meat to be produced from the factory “Has double the protein of lean beef and sells at a far lower price than any animal protein” to help improve nutritional status of children.
In January, 2018, Alafei Foods’ project won unanimous recommendation from the Yendi Municipal Assembly for funding under the government’s One-District One-Factory programme and was cited by the Regional Minister and a Deputy Minister for Trade and Industry as evidence of promise and faith in the government’s programme.
Based on this recommendation, Alafei Foods started the ground works and in March, 2018, approached the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection and the GSFP about supplying soya meat to school children under the GSFP.
Mr Convisser said “We are aghast at learning that a company from Sunyani has offered staff at GSFP and the Ministry a private arrangement to secure this business in the Northern Region that rightfully should go to Alafei Foods, who first approached the Ministry and the GSFP in March, 2018, about supplying soya meat to school children.”
He said “The north of Ghana will never develop unless the farmers and businesses based here are allowed to prosper together.”
He, therefore, appealed to the Minister for Gender, Children and Social Protection to favourably respond to the signatories to the petition by signing the non-binding letter of intent to allow Alafei Foods to secure the needed funding to kick-start the project.
He said the non-binding letter of intent did not present the country with any liabilities in the event of any eventualities.
GNA
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