1D1F: Tissue paper factory to assist reform prisoners starts operation

A tissue paper manufacturing company set up to assist in the reformation of prisoners’ agenda of the government has started operating in the Nsawam Medium Security Prisons under the One-District-One-Factory (1D1F) project.

The company, Brompton Portfolio Limited, will produce toilet rolls, tissue papers, paper towels and packaging products for both domestic and industrial use.

These products will be traded under the brand name SOFTEX.

The cost of the project, according to company officials, is estimated at GH?4million which was secured from the National Investment Bank and GCB Bank through the facilitation of the 1D1F program.

Brompton Portfolio entered into a joint venture agreement with the Ghana Prisons Service to set up a commercial toilet paper manufacturing plant with the aim of assisting in the reformation of prisoners countrywide.

The company has since received certification from Ghana Standards Authority, Environmental Protection Agency and Ghana Free Zones Authority.

It has the capacity to produce over 160,000 packs of tissue papers and toilet rolls per month and provide 105 jobs for inmates of the Nsawam Medium Security Prisons as well as 5,500 distributors across the country.

Commissioning the factory at the Nsawam Medium Security Prisons in the Nsawam Adoagyir Municipality last Tuesday, the Deputy Minister for Trade and Industry, Robert Ahomka-Lindsey, said the private sector as the engine of growth, could count on the government support to enable it to make important contributions towards national development.

The coming on stream of Brompton Portfolio, he noted, is evidence of the government’s commitment to supporting the private sector to grow.

He charged Ghanaians to have the can-do spirit, believing that once others have been able to do it, they too could do same.

30% of the government’s tax generated from the factory, according to Ahomka-Lindsey, would be used to support the upkeep of the Nsawam Prisons.

The factory, he added, will be replicated in other regions to ensure that inmates in those regions also benefit.

The National Coordinator of the 1D1F, Mrs Gifty Ohene-Konadu, commenting on the factory said, the government is committed to reforming prisoners to enable society get the best from them, hence, the Prisons Service’s partnership with Brompton to set up a factory in the Nsawam Medium Security Prisons.

She said the inmates at the Nsawam Medium Prisons would earn some stipends which they could use to support their upkeep and families while in custody or save to look after themselves when they leave the prison after serving the number of years slapped on them.

“Apart from enabling inmates and the Prisons Service to gain sustainable incomes, the acquisition of technical and entrepreneurial knowledge will greatly shape the future of those who would be engaged directly as factory hands in the production process”, she noted.

She was confident that the high suicide rate among inmates and ex-convicts could reduce to the barest minimum if not totally eliminated when such persons were encouraged to engage in productive ventures.

On his part, the Managing Director of Brompton Portfolio Limited, Mr James Yankah, said the partnership between his outfit and the Ghana Prisons Service would enhance the prison work program to enable them to achieve their reformation agenda since it will now be easier for inmates to find jobs after serving their prison terms.

“It has been proven over time that inmates who are given the opportunity to engage in prison work programs while incarcerated find it easy to find work once they are released”, he said.