Pepper processing company courts investors
An indigenous pepper processing start-up, JEGS Company Limited, has called for financial support from both the government and private investors to expand its operations.
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Promoters of the business said about GH¢75,000 additional capital injection either through debt or equity would enable them to acquire a land, grinding machines, install irrigation equipment and employ more hands to work on the value chain.
“We produce powdered pepper — from cultivation, preparation and packaging. Our plan is to expand our farm from two acres to 15 acres in Ekumfi in the Central Region. This expansion is expected to increase the company’s fresh pepper production from 8,000 kilograms to 562,000 kilograms,” the Managing Partner of the JEGS Company Limited, Mr Samuel Gyan, told the Daily Graphic in an interview in Accra.
The company was formed by three friends, fresh university graduates, who after their national services decided to keep themselves employed rather than looked for non-existent jobs.
It grows and processes quality chillies for the local market, but wants to explore the export market.
Mr Gyan explained that the funding would also help the company to meet all the licensing requirements from institutions such as the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) and the Ghana Export Promotion Authority (GEPA).
The manager observed that the expansion was also part of an initiative for the company to start exporting its value added powder pepper to other countries in June this year.
“The funding will also help us to pay for licensing procedures because after registering with the Food and Drugs Authority we also need to register with the GEPA and other agencies to ensure that our goal of exporting to other countries by June this year is realised,” he said.
According to him, the fresh capital injection could also help the company create about 400 direct and indirect jobs.
Banks reluctance
Asked why the company would not seek assistance from the banks, he stated that it had tried on a number of occasions but the financial institutions were not ready for long-term financing.
Mr Gyan indicated that most of them, on a number of occasions, had turned their backs on their initiative because they rated agriculture as risky business in Ghana.
“We have tried several financial institutions and most of them were frank to us – they do not finance agriculture, others that claim they finance agriculture were reluctant to support our initiative. Though some of the financial institutions saw prospects in our project, their interest rate hovered above 32 per cent which will cripple our operations if we tried,” he explained.
Need for support
Given the inability of the public sector to absorb the large number of fresh graduates from the universities, entrepreneurship is now being taught and encouraged in many tertiary institutions in the country.
This has led to many young graduates taking up the challenge of adding value to agro-produce as a means of creating self-employment.
