Tema, Feb. 18, GNA - Officials of the syndicated banks supporting the current expansion programme at the Cocoa Processing Company, (CPC) have paid a familiarisation visit to the factory to acquaint themselves with the operations of the Company and to assess the progress of work. The syndicated banks led by Barclays Bank and including ECOBANK, the Trust Bank and SG-SSB have so far granted loans to the tune of 22 million Euro to the CPC to purchase the required machinery for the programme.

The programme, which is in two phases, is expected to increase the factory's processing capacity from the present 25,000 metric tonnes of raw cocoa beans to 65,000 metric tonnes per annum.

Mr Isaac Abbiw, Technical Consultant for the project, who took the delegation round the factory explained that the phase one involved the construction of a new production line to process 30,000 metric tonnes of cocoa per annum while phase two would entail the upgrading of the current facility to increase the processing capacity to 35,000 metric tonnes.

He said the bulk of the machinery needed for the phase one, was already in the factory and would start with installation in April, this year.

Mr Abbiw said the civil work on the project, which was the most important was near completion and expressed the hope that the phase two would start immediately after completion of the first phase to avoid interruption in production.

The Managing Director of Barclays Bank, Mrs Margaret Mwanaktwe said she was impressed about the work done so far and expressed the hope that other organisations would also support to identify the potential of the company.