Zoomlion Ghana Limited (ZGL) in partnership with Africa Environmental Sanitation Consult (AfES Consult), Graphic Communications Group Limited (GCGL), Ministry of Education (MoE) and Ministry of Sanitation and Water Resources (MSWR), have launched the Environmental Sanitation Research Fund (ESRF).
The ESRF is a grant that can be accessed by universities in the country to help in financing practical and sustainable research into environmental sanitation issues.
Launching the fund in Accra last Friday, the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Health and Allied Sciences, Professor John Owusu Gyapong, said the fund will support the country’s universities to research more into environmental and sanitation issues, which continue to overwhelm the country.
Funds for research, he lamented, have been a huge challenge in the country, adding that the ESRF was a welcome relief to academia in addressing the issues of sanitation.
The Executive Chairman of Jospong Group of Companies (JGC), Dr Joseph Siaw Agyepong, said the fund will help find solutions to the loads of sanitation problems bedeviling the country.
He used the opportunity to give a brief history about how Zoomlion came into existence, insisting that Zoomlion was aiming to be the leader in the sanitation space in the whole of Africa.
The Director of Sanitation at the Ministry of Sanitation and Water Resources, Mr Anthony Mensah, commended the companies for the initiative.
He noted that the fund will facilitate more research into “how best we can protect the environment from filth.”
For her part, the Vice-Chancellor of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Professor Rita Akosua Dickson, said, “our environment, our health and a clean community produce healthy citizens.”
She heaped praises on the collaboration especially JGC for the good works it was doing for the country.
“We should all collectively fight for a common goal towards ensuring that we have a clean environment,” she urged.
While applauding the companies for setting up the fund, the Director of Research at the Presidency, Dr Isaac Owusu-Mensah, challenged other sectors of the economy to also come out with such initiatives.
According to him, the government will support to ensure the fund is sustained.
Mr Franklin Sowah, who represented the Managing Director of GCGL, expressed delight at the launch of the initiative.
He said sanitation was a national issue that concerned every Ghanaian, hence “the need for all of us to support to make the country clean.”
Mr Sowah assured that GCGL will use its many brands including ‘Junior Graphic,’ to educate the citizenry on ensuring that their environs are always clean.
Dr Joseph Siaw Agyepong, Executive Chairman of the Jospong Group of Companies 
Dr Isaac Owusu-Mensah, Director of Research at the Presidency
He also disclosed that GCGL will soon launch the “Clean City Competition” in all the 16 regions.
“The aim of this competition is to massively educate Ghanaians about sanitation matters, and there will be a winner at the end who will be rewarded,” he said.
The Managing Director of AFES Consult, Dr. Abena Asomaning Antwi, gave the assurance that her outfit will give its massive support towards the sustainability of the fund.
