Accra, Oct. 24, GNA - Unilever Ghana has initiated a strategic move under a new foundation called Unilever Ghana Foundation (UGF) to support accelerated growth and development in the country.

The move comes under five key pillars; Women Empowe rment, Support for Sustainable Agriculture, Sanitation, Health and Nutrition. Mr. Andrews Quayson, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of UGF, made this known at the "2009 Dinner with News Editors of Media Houses" in Accra. He said the objective of supporting the agriculture sector was to encourage modern, scientific and all-year round farming to ensure sufficient food for consumption and also help reduce the annual five million-dollar the country spent on rice importation.

Mr. Quayson said: "Once the sector is supported to play its pivotal role, the money spent on importation could be channelled into the provision of socio-economic infrastructure."

He said the foundation was currently sponsoring programmes including the annual science, mathematics and technology education clinic for females in the senior high schools, the national excellence award for best graduating female students from the tertiary schools.

Others were entrepreneurial skills development, the Professorial Chairs Research in Agriculture and Medical science at the University of Cape Coast and Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology. Giving the background of the foundation, which was launched in 1999, he said it was concentrated on efforts to make Ghana a middle income economy by 2020.

Mr Quayson said a total of GHC 1,024,000.00 was used to support formal education.

Mr Charles Cofie, Chief Executive Officer of Unilever Ghana, said promoting investment and improving productivity were ingredients for socio-economic development. He appealed to journalists to be guided by the ethics of their profession and facilitate integrity to ensure national development.