President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has cut the sod for the construction a 15 million Euro solid waste treatment facility at Fiaso, a farming community that lies on the banks of the Fia River, in the Bono East Region.
The sod-cutting ceremony was performed in the presence of the Ministers of Sanitation, and Water Resources, Madam Cecilia Abena Dapaah, Bono East Regional Minister, Kofi Amoakohene, the Executive Chairman of Jospong Group of Companies (JGC), Dr Joseph Siaw Agyepong, Paramount Chief of Techiman, Oseadeyo Ekumfi-Ameyaw IV, and the Queen mother of Fiaso, Mariama among others.
The sod cutting ceremony of the solid waste facility with the capacity to do sorting, process, turn waste into fertilisers, plastics among others, formed part of the President’s two-day tour of the Bono East Region.
The project, which is expected to be completed within four months, is under a partnership between Zoomlion Ghana Limited (ZGL), its private sector partners and the Ministry of Sanitation and Water Resources (MSWR).
Speaking at the ceremony, the Executive Chairman of JGC, who also doubles as the CEO of ZGL, Dr Joseph Siaw-Agyepong, revealed that the plant when completed would create 75 and 250 direct and indirect jobs respectively.
“With the President performing the sod-cutting ceremony, we are starting the construction immediately. All the machines are ready to facilitate the project,” he said.
He thanked the chiefs and people of the region for offering his company a 100-acre plot for the construct of the plant.
According to the CEO of Zoomlion, eight districts in the region would be using the solid waste plant. These districts, he said, included Techiman North and South, Nkoranza North and South, Kintampo South and North, Wenchi, and Techiman Municipal.
In a related development, President Nana Akufo-Addo also inspected ongoing work on a US$34 million starch processing factory at Amantin in the Bono East Region.
Touring the premises of the Amantin Agro Processing Ltd, a wholly owned Ghanaian company, on Tuesday, on the first day of his working visit of the Bono East Region, President Akufo-Addo stated that, when fully completed, the factory would be one of the most modernised and fully automated industrial starch factories in West Africa.
According to the promoters of the facility, the company is currently cultivating 14,000 acres of farm land as its own nucleus plantation, whilst supporting thousands of local farmers to cultivate more than 40,000 acres of cassava under an Outgrower Scheme involving 15,000 Principal Out Growers.
The factory is expected to create about 450 direct jobs at the factory floor, with more than 30,000 indirect employment opportunities.
“The product from Amantin Agro Processing Ltd is going to serve as a major source of raw material input for many processing companies in the food, beverages, pharmaceuticals and textiles industries of the country. This will go a long way to boost domestic industrial production and productivity. Furthermore, it will enhance the export of industrial starch into the global market,” the President said.
Commending management of the company for taking advantage of the One-District One-Factor (1D1F) incentives introduced by this government in putting up such a magnificent industrial establishment, in what is a rural district in the country, President Akufo-Addo reiterated Government’s commitment to partnering with the private sector to establish similar modern factories, which would be globally competitive, and which would take advantage of the opportunities of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).
Recounting the importance of the 1D1F 1 initiative, President Akufo-Addo explained that raw material producing economies do not create prosperity for the masses, explaining that the way to that goal, the goal of ensuring access to prosperity, is value addition activities in a transformed and a diversified, modern economy.
The 1D1F initiative, amongst other programmes, under the Industrial Transformation Agenda of Government, is designed to transform the industrial landscape of the country, and build the capacities of domestic entrepreneurs and existing enterprises to produce high quality products and services for both domestic and foreign markets.
Further, according to the President, “it seeks to create employment, particularly for the youth in rural and peri-urban communities, and, thereby, improve income levels and standard of living, as well as reduce rural-urban migration.”
By Times Reporter
