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Jobs for the people as President inaugurates 8.3
million-dollar Factory at Techiman
Techiman (B/A), Feb. 28, Ghanadot/GNA -
President John Agyekum Kufuor on Thursday inaugurated an 8.3
million-dollar vegetable oil processing factory at Techiman
in Brong Ahafo Region for
The Ghana Nuts Limited, which
processes shea nuts and soya beans for the export market.
President Kufuor pledged the Government's resolve to support
and provide incentives to investors who located factories in
rural communities.
This, he said, was the way to promote balanced development,
modernize the rural areas and reduce rural-urban drift.
The Company, the first to have taken advantage of the Free
Zones enclave to establish in the Municipality, is providing
direct employment to 1,150 people.
Currently, it processes 18,000 tonnes of shea nuts and
20,000 tonnes of soya beans annually for export and is also
into the edible oil market with its introduction of the "Akoma
Soya Bean Oil".
Besides, every year, it exports over 5,000 tonnes of
groundnuts to Europe and the Far East in addition to sesame
seeds and cashew nuts.
President Kufuor said the Government would continue to
provide the necessary infrastructure and the right
environment for the private sector to thrive adding that,
its vision of Golden Age of Business and the Private Sector
led economic-growth policies were not mere slogans.
"Indeed, all the indicators show that we have succeeded in
stabilizing the economy of Ghana for its accelerated take
off."
This, he said, was being underpinned by vigorous investment
efforts at improving energy supply; road infrastructure and
a reinvigoration of rail transport to bring down the cost of
haulage of goods and services to all parts of the country
and beyond.
President Kufuor noted that the factory was being
inaugurated at a time the local market was flooded with
consumable goods from other countries and urged Ghanaians to
support local industries to survive the stiff competition of
the global market by patronizing their products.
"This is the only way we can ensure their sustainability. In
this way also employment would be sustained and poverty
among our people would be reduced."
He said he was happy that investors like the Ghana Nuts
Limited were beginning to show the way to adding value to
the country's primary commodities, especially agricultural
commodities for both export and local consumption and
thereby increase the country's capacity to earn foreign
exchange.
President Kufuor said the situation where Ghana like many
other emerging economies, for decades, was exporting cocoa,
timber, gold and other agricultural produce without any
value addition, limited the country's ability to generate
maximum profits from the sale of these products.
"Ghana Nuts Limited is today showing us the way by investing
in the processing of soya, peanuts and shea nuts into oils
and their related products for both the domestic and
international markets."
He commended the owners and management of the company for
setting the pace.
Mr Ignatius Baffour Awuah, Brong-Ahafo Regional Minister,
encouraged farmers in the Region to take advantage of the
factory by going into large-scale production of soya beans
and peanuts since there was now a ready market for them.
He also advised the workers to shun negative attitudes like
pilfering and stealing of the factory's products and
property, saying, that their continued employment was
dependent on the Company's sustainability.
Mr Obed Asante, Chief Executive Officer of the Company, said
their successful operation had been the result of the
Government's sound macro-economic policies.
The ease of restrictions on the repatriation of profits,
lowering of inflation and interest rates and enhanced access
to credit had been of immense benefit to them, he said.
GNA
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