Accra, July 15, GNA – Wangara Green Ventures, an impact investment fund in Ghana, has announced a GH¢1.9 million investment in Akwaaba Feeds Limited to support the poultry and livestock industry.
Akwaaba Feeds Limited, which is a climate smart agribusiness and a leading poultry and pig feed manufacturing company, is expected to use the investment to manufacture high quality and affordable feed for the poultry and livestock industry using insect protein.
A statement jointly issued by the two companies and copied to the Ghana News Agency in Accra, explained that the feed variety was formulated with the support of Bioproton Pty Limited, an Australian-based developer and manufacturer of a high quality enzyme, surfactant, and probiotic feed supplements.
Akwaaba Feeds also has a strategic partnership with West Africa Feeds, an incubatee of the Ghana Climate Innovation Centre (GCIC), for the production of a low cost, high protein feed base made from insects, which serves as a nutritious alternative to fish meal used in typical protein base poultry feeds, the statement said.
Akwaaba Feeds, founded in 2017, grew from two distributors and four workers in 2018 to four distribution outlets and 18 staff in 2019 with a revenue growth of 225 per cent.
The company currently has distribution outlets in Accra, Cape Coast, Takoradi and Kumasi.
Wangara Green Ventures’ investment in Akwaaba Feeds, the statement explained, would enable the Company to double its production capacity, expand its distribution channels to make their feed more accessible to small holder farmers and also scale up the production of insect protein in commercial quantities.
The project would also position Akwaaba Feeds to contribute immensely to local poultry production and the attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals on hunger, good health and wellbeing, and no poverty in a climate resilient way.
The statement said the Ministry of Food and Agriculture estimated 180,000 metric tonnes of poultry meat as being imported yearly to augment the local poultry supply of 58,000 metric tonnes, leaving a poultry output gap of 162,000 metric tonnes annually.
“With growing uncertainty about food security as well as Government’s favourable policies in support of local poultry production, Wangara’s investment couldn’t have come at an opportune time,” it noted.
Mr Sylvester Cooper, the Chief Executive Officer of Akwaaba Feeds Ltd, said the investment from Wangara Green Ventures was a game changer for the Company and would help to reposition it to take advantage of government’s drive in growing the poultry sector.
“This is by reducing the importation of frozen chicken into the country, which has a great potential to create employment and reduce the pressure on foreign currencies,” he said.
The most exciting aspect of the deal, Mr Cooper said, was the technical support Akwaaba Feeds would receive from Wangara to aid its growth strategy.
In addition to the GH¢1.9million investment, Akwaaba Feeds would also receive technical assistance in the form of other business development services to enable it to realise the growth plans, the statement said.
It said Wangara Green Ventures had invested between GH¢250,000 and GH¢2,500,000 in Small and Growing Ghanaian Businesses that were making social and environmental impact on communities.
It also supported the growth and sustainability of the businesses by making available pre-investment and post-investment Technical Assistance Grants.
The Company is sponsored by Innohub Foundation through the $3.2 million Ghana Climate Venture Facility from the Word Bank.
GNA