Management of Casa De Ropa, a sweet potato producing and processing company established under the One District, One Factory (1D1F) industrialization policy is seeking an amount of GHC3 million bailout from Exim Bank to sustain its operations.
The company which was commissioned by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akuffo-Addo in August 2020 has not operated fully due to financial constraints to augment production.
Mr Ebenezer Obeng-Baffoe, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the company, said prior to the commissioning of the facility, the Exim Bank agreed to loan it a GHc 3 million additional working capital to augment its operations but that had not been fulfilled as promised, thereby, affecting the company’s operations.
In an interview with Ghana News Agency, Mr. Obeng-Baffoe revealed that a huge quantum of the GHc 14.4 million loan facility went into preparatory works, tools and equipment, infrastructure, and commissioning.
He added that “currently the company is not operating at full capacity and has never operated at full capacity due to logistics constraints. The envisaged production has not taken place yet, it is like a hand-to-mouth thing we are doing.”
“At the moment, we are surviving by our small restaurant at the University of Cape Coast where our products are sold to pay workers. We are doing strategic production on a limited scale hoping the Exim bank will grant us the amount”, he added.
The company processes orange-fleshed sweet potato into a puree, which is further processed into biscuits, bread, crisps, and chips, using improved production technology.