Guinness Ghana Breweries Limited (GGBL) has been adjudged the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Company of the year at the 7th Ghana CSR Excellence Awards in Accra.

The company was honoured 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.

The 7th Ghana Corporate Social Responsibility Excellence Award was organized by the Centre for CSR West Africa and its local and international partners.

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

He said from a modest 12 per cent LRM use in 2012, Guinness Ghana’s LRM usage has grown to 48 per cent and impacted the lives of more than 25,000 farmers.

Mr Opoku-Asare said their target was to source 70 per cent of local raw materials by 2020 and this 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 added.

Mr Opoku-Asare said as a leader in Ghana’s manufacturing industry, GGBL was 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.

“Through this initiative we are improving their skills as well as the yields of cassava, sorghum and maize whilst creating sustainable incomes for these farmers and their families,” he said.

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

“Since 2007, we have 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,” he said.

Mr Opoku-Asare said 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 the company remains committed to its 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 the environment in which they operate.

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.