Ghana’s government has granted Kasapreko, a major local manufacturer of spirits and soft drinks, a $28m tax waiver. The waiver has been granted under the 1D1F (one District, one Factory) program. The tax waiver will be used to fund the restart operations at Paramount Distilleries.

Paramount Distilleries was originally set up in 1969 in Tanoso, outside Kumasi, as a partnership between Heineken and Ghanaian investors. It produced gin (typically labelled as aromatic schnapps) for the West African market. The distillery itself had been designed and built in partnership with Dutch gin distiller Henkes. It has traditionally one of Kasapreko’s main competitors. The company was a subsidiary of the state beverage firm GIHOC Distilleries.

The Ghanian government expects the relaunch of Paramount Distilleries to create 300 jobs. The tax waiver will be used to buy equipment and raw materials to restart distilling and bottling. Kaspareko restarted the 10,000m² Paramount site in May this year. It has three production lines installed and is capable of producing 85,000 bottles per hour of 20 different products.

Earlier this year, Kasapreko switched production to mass produce hand sanitisers. It received a $7.4m loan facility will allow the company to expand and install production capacity for over 200,000 bottles of hand sanitiser a day.