Joseph Siaw Agyepong, one of Ghana's most successful industrialists, owns the conglomerate Jospong Group of Companies, which has secured a $33 million facility from the Austrian government for the expansion of its rice production enterprise in Ghana.
Ghana's President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, praised Austria for the gesture at a luncheon held in honor of the Austrian Chancellor, Karl Nehammer, in Accra on Wednesday, noting that the Jospong Group has already established 16 integrated recycling and composting facilities with previous financial assistance from the Austrian government.
The multimillionaire announced last year that he would begin large-scale mechanized rice cultivation, in response to the Ghanaian government's decision to increase the country's rice output.
According to Billionaires Africa, the company has signed memorandums of understanding with key rice players in Thailand to build a seed development and research center, rice mechanization centers, bio-organic fertilizer manufacturing centers, field tool supply, and rice mills in Ghana.
Joseph Siaw Agyepong founded the Jospong Group of Companies in 1995 as a printing press; it has since grown into one of Ghana's largest corporations with business interests in over 14 sectors encompassing 60 subsidiaries with operations in Africa and Asia.