The Unique Shepherd (US), Group of Companies, an indigenous Ghanaian entity says it is close to finalizing a partnership deal with an international company to help improve its Tilapia farming project.
The international partner is expected to inject capital and to use its technical knowhow and expertise in fish farming to lift up the company’s operations.
Chief Godfred Medicine, Executive Director of the company, in an interview with the media said the deal when sealed would boost the US Group’s operations and bring to an end as well as reverse the unfortunate losses that the company suffered in its earlier Tilapia project.
“The company did not achieve the desired results in our first project due to some technical challenges and natural disasters such as flooding which the company did not have reasonable control over. We could not even break even but there is hope with the new partnership deal we will sign soon,” he said.
He said with the coming on board of the international partner, who has in-depth knowledge and skills in aquaculture, the company would diversify into the production of other fishes, including shrimps.
Mr. Medicine, said with the injection of more funds into US company’s operations, the company would be able to scale up its production level to be able to meet Ghana’s growing demand for fish and also export the excess to the West African Sub-region.
Currently, Ghana is a net importer of fish, bringing in 50 percent of her fish needs annually due to declining stock of fish at home.
“We can as a country, collectively, reduce Ghana’s fish import if we adopt the right technologies to increase production,” he said.
On the issue of payment to early investors in the Tilapia business, he said measures were being put in place to ensure that they were paid.
“It is rather unfortunate that our project failed to yield the results that we expected, but I want to assure them that their investment would not go down the drain,” he said.
He said the company would soon come out with a time table indicating how the investors would be paid.
“I want to use the opportunity to tell the investors that I am in Ghana and would not run away,” he said.
Mr. Medicine, said with the partnership the company’s Tilapia project would become profitable.
Asked how the company was dealing with court cases initiated by some investors he said “the case is in court and I would not comment on it. All that I can say is to assure investors that their monies would be paid.”
By: Evans Effah/citifmonline.com/Ghana