[ 2016-11-12 ]

Nana Kwaku Aterkyi

1-district-1-factory solution to unemployment – Chief
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.

Source - Classfmonline

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