Francis Justice Cofie, the Chief Executive Officer of Trust Aqua, a sachet water producing company in Ghana has asked the government to place sachet water producing companies under its one District One Factory initiative currently running.
According to the young business man, sachet water producing companies also create huge jobs and it is important the sector is also considered.
“This industry impacts positively on the livelihood of the ordinary Ghanaian…….it’s very important we are also considered so we benefit from incentives as being provided by government,” he told journalists in Accra.
Cofie is of the view that, the government must be applauded for the 1D1F initiative that seeks to establish factories in various Districts across the country.
He says the aim of the initiative which is to create jobs and also reduce rural urban migration is the best decision.
He is certain that for Ghana to move from importation to production status, there is a need for the government to arrive on actions aimed at industrialization.
“When various sectors of the economy are industrialized, Ghana would benefit from more taxes for development and again, more jobs would be created,” he stated.
He therefore challenged the government to partner with sachet water companies in that direction.
Mr Francis Cofie says some sachet water companies are doing well and revealed how his company alone has established over 30 jobs for the youth in and around West Lands community alone.
“Trust Aqua is doing its best, if the government comes on board with the 1D1F initiative a lot of lives will be touched in the area. Just imagine the number of people that drinks sachet water a day. So, if funds and other packages are given out to us under the 1D1F for expansion purposes, more jobs would be created” he added.
According to him, sachet water companies have huge number of people along its value chain, from the factory hands, drivers, distributors to the ordinary Ghanaian hawker on the streets and further stated that jobs are created and standard of lives have improved through conscious efforts in providing drinking water for the citizenry.
Mr Francis Cofie opined that Trust Aqua produces over 2500 bags of sachet water every day and ventured to mention the number of jobs the company has created.
“We have given out about 35 direct jobs and hundreds of indirect jobs to people in their enclave…..We started Trust Aqua in 2013 in an effort to augment government’s effort in job creation” he told the media.
He clarified that, the company is under producing at 2500 bags a day whilst they can produce about 1000 bags a day.
He lamented about the high cost of production and wish stakeholders consider the price of the sachet water bags going forward.
