Nana Kwaku Aterkyi, the Omanhene of Kukuom in the Asunafo South constituency, has lauded the 1-District-1-Factory policy of the 2016 presidential candidate of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, explaining that it is the solution to the high levels of unemployment currently prevailing in the country.
According to Nana Kwaku Aterkyi, this proposal is the best amongst the proposals espoused by all the political parties in this year’s electioneering period, as it has touched the hearts of many in his town and across the country.
He explained that “everyone who has travelled outside Ghana will bear testimony to the fact that if any nation is to progress, its manufacturing and production base must thrive. The vision being expressed by Nana Akufo-Addo is based on the fact that we have an abundance of raw materials in every part of the country. This should make it easy for us, in Ghana, to produce our own things.”
Nana Kwaku Aterkyi made this known on Friday, November 11, 2016, when Nana Akufo-Addo paid a courtesy call on him at his palace, as part of his four-day tour of the Brong Ahafo region.
The Chief of Kukuom noted that in the three Northern Regions, for example, shea nuts and ‘dawadawa’ abound. These two raw materials alone, he stressed, could easily lead to the setting up of 100 factories, as there are several byproducts that can be obtained from the processing of these two raw materials.
Again, he stressed that along the coastal belt, coconut can be processed into 47 different items, including coconut oil, coconut water concentrate and activated carbon, amongst others.
“In the forest zones, we have an abundance of plantain and cocoa. The husks of plantain, as well as the pods of cocoa can be processed into soap. Our grandmothers did it, so it can be done now. Cocoa beans can be processed into beverages and fertilisers. In our forest zones, therefore, so many processing facilities can be set up,” Nana Kwaku Aterkyi added.
He continued, “The 1-District-1-Factory policy is a laudable initiative. It will solve the unemployment crisis in our country. When our children complete school and have no jobs to do, it is a sad spectacle and worrying development for us all. As a traditional ruler, I am left distraught when I see children roaming about in the town with nothing to do. This policy is a welcome one, because it has touched the hearts of many and it is the key to providing jobs for Ghanaians.”
Touching on the importance of agriculture to the development of the nation, the Chief of Kukuom noted that if the country is to make any meaningful change in the lives of the people, “our efforts must be directed at the agricultural sector. The majority of people can only feel a change in their lives when we develop agriculture.”
To this end, he endorsed Nana Akufo-Addo’s ‘1-village-1-dam policy’, explaining that the only way to increase the total land area under cultivation in Ghana is for the country to develop more irrigation systems.
On the decision by a future Akufo-Addo government to move Ghana’s economy away from one based on taxation to production, Nana Kwaku Aterkyi lauded the move, explaining that the reduction of the tax burden on companies will stimulate the growth of the economy, as well as create jobs for the teeming masses of unemployed Ghanaians.
“Nana Akufo-Addo’s vision is one that can transform this nation, and I urge all to embrace it,” he concluded.
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