Kwae (E/R), Sept. 30, GNA - The Ghana Oil Palm Development Company (GOPDC) at Kwae has released GHC 188,726 to eight communities on whose land it is operating to assist them in their development efforts. This is in line with an agreement the company signed with communities that provided land for the Kwae and Okumaning plantations. The beneficiary communities are Kwae, Anweam, Asuom, Minta and Makamamaa in the Kwae plantation project area and Okumaning, Kusi and Takrowase in the Okumaning plantation area.

Alhaji Bashir Manu, Community Relation Officer of GOPDC, told the GNA that each year one percent of the company's turn- over goes to the variou= s Traditional Councils and communities to cater for their socio-economic development. He said the amount a community received depended on the total amount it had released for the company's plantation project. Alhaji Manu said the company also assisted the Kwaebibirem District Assembly, the Okyeman Environmental Plantation and the Akyem Abuakwa Traditional Council among others.

He said GOPDC realized that education was a catalyst for community development and for that matter was awarding scholarships to brilliant but needy students in its operational areas. Alhaji Manu said the company is assisting the University College of Agriculture and Environmental Studies at Bonsu. He said the company had released oil palm seedlings to the college an= d placed its state of the art refinery laboratory at the disposal of the college for research work. Since its establishment in 1975, GOPDC had been contributing to the socio-economic development and advancement in its area of operation in education, health and sanitation, energy, protection of environment and roa= d construction and maintenance.