The facility, with a milling machine, an office, a water supply system and a shed, is to help increase economic opportunities for the women who collect and process shea nuts and also help boost shea butter production in the country.

The initiative is by Grameen Ghana, a non-governmental organisation (NGO), with funding from the Government of Japan under its Grant Assistance for Grassroots Human Security Projects (GGHSP).

Until the inauguration of the facility, women in the area, who were into shea nut picking and processing, resorted to the traditional method of processing shea nuts, which was tedious and time consuming.

Inauguration

Speaking at a brief ceremony to inaugurate the facility at Kpugi last Monday, the Deputy Chief of Mission at the Embassy of Japan in Ghana, Mr Hiromoto Oyama, said: “As the shea butter business is one of the few employment opportunities available to women in northern Ghana, this processing centre is expected to help advance the living standard and empowerment of women in this community”.

He noted that the project would go a long way to help build a strong foundation to promote the “Ghana Beyond Aid” agenda, through livelihood growth and empowerment of women who would be essential contributors towards the national agenda.

According to Mr Oyama, the governments of Ghana and Japan had been collaborating in various areas of development, which demonstrated the fruits of close relations between the two countries over the past years.

Sustainability

For his part, the Executive Director of Grameen Ghana, Mr Mohammed Al-Hassan Adams, gave an assurance that his outfit would continue to monitor the facility to ensure that it was used for the intended purpose, explaining that, the main vision of his outfit was to ensure food security and empower women economically to enable them support the upkeep of their children, and also to alleviate poverty.

The Member of Parliament for the Gushegu Constituency, Dr Ziblim Iddi, who was also present, commended Grameen Ghana and its partner for the gesture, saying the initiative would help enhance the livelihood of women in Kpugi and its surrounding communities.

He pledged a seed capital of GH¢6,000 for the women groups to enable them to start operating the facility.

Some women who spoke to the Daily Graphic expressed their gratitude to the NGO for providing them with the facility, adding that it would help improve their livelihood and enable them to take care of their families.

Source : Graphic Online

According to him, the time has come for the country not to overly depend on cocoa for its revenue generation and the development of the economy.

He notes that many of developed nations achieved their development status through industrialisation, hence the need for the country to embrace industrialisation.

Mr Kyerematen was speaking at a panel session at the opening ceremony of the Results Fair organised by the Ministry of Monitoring and Evaluation in Accra on Tuesday, [January 14, 2020.]

The 3-day Result Fair, being organised under the theme: “Delivery results for citizens work in progress” is under the auspices of the Ministry of Monitoring and Evaluation.

The move is to enable Ministries, Departments and Agencies of the government to interact with citizens, civil society and the media to explain the progress of implementation and achievements of government’s flagship programmes and other strategic interventions.

Mr Kyeremanten said it was only through industrialisation that Ghana’s economy could be transformed, pointing out that it was based on this premise that the Akufo-Addo-led New Patriotic Party (NPP) has embarked on massive industrialisation programmes, including the One District One Factory (1D1F) initiative.

He explained that the 1D1F initiative by far is Ghana’s most industrialisation focused programme before and after independence.

He said the government was providing the various supportive mechanisms to the project under the 1D1F, pointing out that the 1D1F initiative does not mean that the government was going to establish new State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs).

Mr Kyeremanten said the 1D1F initiative was a programme meant to be led by the private sector, stressing that the country would soon become an industrialised one.

He was of the view that for Ghana to become an industrialised one, there is the need to shift from over-dependence on foreign products to enhancing the capacities of local industries to produce more.

Source : Graphic Online

Three of the greenhouses are at various levels of completion, with the first one located at Akumadan in the Offinso North District expected to be inaugurated by President Akufo-Addo in February 2020.

Speaking at a panel session at the opening ceremony of the maiden Results Fair organised by the Ministry of Monitoring and Evaluation in Accra on Tuesday [January 14, 2020] the Minister of Food and Agriculture (MoFA), Dr Owusu Afriyie Akoto, said Ghana was aiming at becoming like Kenya in the vegetable and cut flower business.

The other two greenhouses, he said, were located at Dawhenya and Accra West.

Dr Afriyie Akoto said Kenya derives about US$3.billon from the vegetable and cut flower business from the European market alone.

That, he said, if Ghana positions itself well, could equally rake in a lot of foreign exchanges through the vegetable and cut flower industry.

The 3-day Results Fair, organised under the theme: “Delivery results for citizens work in progress” is being organised under the auspices of the Ministry of Monitoring and Evaluation to enable Ministries, Departments and Agencies of government to interact with citizens, civil society and the media to explain progress of implementation and achievements of government’s flagship programmes and other strategic interventions.

The various ministries would take turns to showcase projects under their watch to the media and the public.

Many of the ministries as well as departments and agencies have mounted their booths at the inner frontage of the Accra International Conference Centre, where the event is taking place.

Source : Graphic Online