Unilever central to PSI on palm oil - Minister

Kumasi, Feb 16, GNA - Mr Allan Kyeremateng, Minister of Trade, Industry and Presidential Special Initiative (PSI), has stated that Unilever Ghana Limited is central to the President's Special Initiative on Palm Oil.

This, he said, was due to the fact that the company used palm oil for the manufacture of most of its products and also that the company had a lot of experience in the oil palm industry.


Speaking at the 2003 awards night and dinner dance for Unilever distributors in Kumasi at the weekend, Mr Kyeremateng noted that efforts at the palm oil initiative was progressing.


Government, he said, was looking forward to the time when Unilever would use all the palm oil that would be produced in the country when the initiative was in full flight.


The Trade Minister said government also intended to pursue the salt initiative vigorously until the country was able to supply the entire market so that a company like Unilever would get its requirement of salt.


Mr Kyeremateng said government was committed to ensuring that the "Golden Age of Business" concept did not turn out to be an empty rhetoric and would therefore pursue pragmatic policies that would make the private sector flourish.


Mr Ishmael Yamson, Chairman, Unilever Ghana Limited, in a message to the distributors, said the company faced two challenges, unfair competition and distribution focus.

He said whereas some distributors set out with single-minded passion and commitment to grow their business, others could not take advantage of all the opportunities present in their clusters. Some of us had weak focus on Unilever distributorship by engaging in other activities that run counter to the exclusivity principle we all signed.


Mr Yamson said unfair competition from smugglers continued to be the number one enemy to domestic industrial growth and major risk factor for the private sector as a whole.


He said the company was, however, grateful to the government for the support it gave in taking some very serious steps towards curbing smuggling but said more was required to eliminate this canker in 2004, particularly as the perpetrators made efforts to change their modus operandi to escape customs and security cover.


Miss Cynthia Ifeagwu, Customer Development Director of the company, said its "Home Care" business recorded very healthy growth and also strengthened its position in the laundry bars market, fuelled by the excellent performance of Key and Sunlight soaps.


"Indeed our detergent powders business grew by over 30 per cent," she added, while the company extended its Annapuna brand to fortified biscuits and rice in addition to the salt in the popular food business. Miss Ifeagwu said Unilever's goal still remained at ensuring full market presence and availability, adding that to drive this home, the company's internal resources would be re-aligned to focus on areas of maximum business potential and would involve the expansion of its field sales force.


In all, 85 distributors of the company received various awards ranging from kente cloths to computers, generators, cash with the over all best distributor award going to Fio Enterprise which received a brand new truck valued at 120 million cedis. 16 Feb. 04