Black Stars Coach Kwasi Appiah to establish €14.5m solar factory

Coach Kwasi Appiah with the team from Appiah-Karim Company

The head coach of the Black Stars, James Kwasi Appiah, is to establish a €14.5 million Euros solar manufacturing factory in Ghana in collaboration with a German firm as his contribution to ensure efficient production of energy in the country.

The factory, named Appiah-Karim Company, is in partnership with JVG-Thoma — a German firm — to establish a solar factory at Ashaiman in the Greater Accra Region to produce solar panels in commercial quantities to enhance the efficient and effective supply of energy in Ghana.

Already, the Ashiaman Municipal Assembly has provided a 3.4 acre land to the Appiah-Karim Company to establish the solar factory, which is expected to take off by the end of February next year.

Briefing the Daily Graphic about the initiative, a consultant of the company, Mr Kwame Nti Karikari, said Coach Appiah, who is the chairman of the company, together with the Managing Director, Mr Abdul Karim Sumarey, took the initiative to partner the German firm to establish the solar factory not only to make power readily available for domestic usage but also to ensure that energy for factories across the country were efficient and affordable.
Jobs to Ghanaians
He said when established, it would offer an estimated 650 jobs to Ghanaians, 150 of them being permanent with 500 on a casual basis.
He said the company would have six Ghanaian Directors, including Mr Abdul Karim Sumarey, Mr Wilfred Kwaku Osei (Palmer), who is an executive committee member of the Ghana Football Association, and Mr Abraham Boakye, aka One Man Supporter.

He revealed that the Ashaiman Municipal Assembly, which provided the land, would use it as equity to ensure that the present and future generations of the municipality benefited tremendously from the gains of the factory.

According to Mr Karikari, the management of the factory will train employees to acquire skills in solar panel fabrication.

This, he said, would ensure that the products were readily available for domestic and industrial usage and at affordable prices.

He explained that producing efficient solar panels would also go a long way to motivate the youth to establish small and medium scale enterprises, thereby reducing the escalating unemployment challenges confronting Ghana.

He said creating jobs on a large scale would also enhance revenue generation in society and curb social vices that had become the concern of many Ghanaians.