Guinness Ghana Breweries Limited (GGBL), Ghana’s leading total beverage business has been adjudged the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Company of the year at the 7th Ghana CSR Excellence Awards in Accra.

The company beat off competition from Ghana’s top CSR-aligned companies to win the award; in recognition of its commitment to building thriving communities in Ghana through the company’s highly impactful Local Raw Materials (LRM) and Water of Life (WOL) programmes.

Commenting on the award, Corporate Relations Director for GGBL, Mr. Gabriel Opoku-Asare, said the award endorses GGBL’s unrelenting efforts and sustainable investment in communities across the country over the last few years.

“From a modest 12% LRM use in 2012, Guinness Ghana’s LRM usage has grown to 48%, impacted the lives of more than 25,000 farmers. Our target is to source 70% of local raw materials by 2020; which should have an incremental impact on the communities in which we operate. Currently, we can proudly say we are the largest users of local raw materials in the brewery and manufacturing industry in Ghana”, he said.

He noted that as a leader in Ghana’s manufacturing industry, GGBL is spearheading a Local Raw Materials programme that currently supports over 25,000 farmers and impacting over 175,000 families in the Upper East, Upper West, Northern, Brong-Ahafo, Volta, Eastern and Central regions; adding that, “through this initiative we are improving their skills and yields of cassava, sorghum and maize and enabling sustainable incomes for these farmers and their families”.

Mr. Opoku-Asare mentioned that aligned to the company’s LRM initiative is the Water of Life programme, which has become an essential element of sustainability within the company’s supply chain.

“Since 2007, we’ve sought to establish strong relationships with our local suppliers and their communities, and taking collective actions with them on Water, Sanitation, and Health (WASH), where this emerges as a priority challenge. Working in tandem with various partners, the programme has provided access to safe drinking water and sanitation to more than 600,000 beneficiaries in over 70 communities in Ghana, he said.

“We remain committed to our vision of generating long-term business value with locally and sustainably source raw materials which meet quality standards and have a positive impact on the communities and environment in which we operate”, he further noted.

Guinness Ghana was also adjudged the CSR Manufacturing Company of the year, in recognition of the company’s outstanding efforts and impact made through its CSR projects and feasible sustainability plan woven around business practice.