Ebo Quansah in Accra.
Tomorrow is going to be a special day in the lives of all citizens of the Ekumfi Traditional Area and all Ghanaians clamouring for jobs and improvement in the quality of life at the centre of the earth.
Barely eight months after taking office, and in spite of the huge challenges on the economic front, President Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo will cut the sod to officially signify the beginning of the construction of the first project under the ‘One District, One Factory’ programme of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) tomorrow.
All roads lead to Ekumfi Eyisam, where a grand durbar of chiefs and people of the traditional area would herald the sod-cutting. The factory is to be operated by the Ekumfi Fruit Processing Company, a private entity, with support from the central government.
The official programme includes President Akufo-Addo visiting a large pineapple farm owned by the company, under the guidance of Prof. Kwarteng, an academic who is also a farmer, and his son, Kwame Kwarteng.
There will be an exhibition highlighting some of the opportunities to open up in the district, and the country at large, following the operation of the company. After the presidential sod cutting job, the Head of State is expected to review an exhibition of the potentials of the factory and address a durbar of chiefs and people of the traditional area.
With the entire family of the Elephant tradition on their way to Cape Coast, expect a carnival atmosphere at the launch.
The idea of setting up a factory to process pineapples in the Ekumfi District is exciting the chiefs and people of the traditional area. Nana Idun, Acting President of the Ekumfi Traditional Council, spoke for all the people of the 53 towns and villages of the Ekumfi District, when he told a durbar of chiefs and people at Essarkyir a fortnight ago, that the Traditional Council is grateful for the project, particularly, when the district is pioneering the presidential vision of providing factories for all the 216 districts in the country, to provide jobs and boost the export potential at the centre of the earth.
Nana Idun, who is also the Chief of Narkwa, assured the Head of State and all Ghanaians that the money being spent on the project would never be in vain.
He spoke of natural resources, including land being available in Ekumfi for the construction of many other projects, stressing that traditional area is also a very serious fishing community, and that any interested group of people wishing to set up a fish processing plant, for instance, would be very much welcome.
Many ignorant Ghanaians are questioning the rationale for pioneering the presidential flagship programme in Ekumfi, contending that when ex-President John Dramani Mahama launched his community school project, it started with the Atta Mills Community Secondary School at Otuam in the Ekumfi District.
Why Ekumfi? The answer to this riddle is provided by the sitting Head of State himself. According to President Akufo-Addo, the choice of Ekumfi to pilot his flagship programme -One District, One Factory- is to honour the memory of the deceased President John Evans Fiifi Atta Mills, who was a native of Ekumfi.
Read the presidential lips: “Before we competed (in the elections), we were brothers. We were at the University of Ghana together. We were even in the same hall. We were friends till the day he died. I have to do something to show that the friendship we had was not for nothing,” the President told a durbar of chiefs and people of the Ekumfi Traditional Area at Essarkyir, barely two weeks ago.
The project, according to Mrs. Gifty Ohene-Konadu, Coordinator of the ‘One District, One Factory’ project, the Ekumfi project is expected to generate 5,000 jobs, including farmers, farmhands, factory workers and marketing officials. What would be music in the ears of farmers in the Ekumfi area is the assurance from the Co-ordinator that the government would subsidise farmers to grow more pineapples to feed the factory.
“Sometimes, you don’t have buyers to buy your pineapples. But, with the establishment of the factory, you will get a ready market for your produce. The interesting part is that the Chinese can use the pineapple crown to sew wedding dresses,” Mrs. Ohene-Konadu told the people.
The importance of the project to the socio-economic transformation of this country is reflected in the claim and counter-claims by the two leading political parties in the country that it was their political traditions that initiated the project.
The National Democratic Congress contends that, as early as the year 2013, the administration of former President John Dramani Mahama recognised the huge potential of a pineapple factory in the area, and put mechanisms in place for the establishment of a factory to produce pineapple juice for export and internal consumption.
The New Patriotic Party’s claim is premised on an earlier date. Communicators of the party in power trace the genesis of such a factory to 2007/2008, when an edifice was constructed at Essuehyia Junction, to serve as the nucleus of the venture.
Even before the presidential axe touches the ground, the political barometer is boiling with claims and counter-claims. While the NPP insists that the genesis of the Ekumfi pineapple project dates back to the efforts by the Kufuor regime to establish a factory at Essuehyia Junction in 2007/2008 financial year, and accuses the NDC of abandoning the project when the Umbrella was in power, NDC officials rather insist that it was their regime which began the idea of setting up the factory.
The fact on the ground is that in the evening of the Kufuor administration, an attempt was made to establish a factory at Essuehyia Junction. A building was put up with the hope of housing the project. Somehow, the necessary tools were not put in place until the government lost power.
The NDC in power never pursued the project. The edifice put up by the Kufuor administration now houses a basic school. What is on the ground standing in the name of the NDC in power was a scheme to aid farmers in Ekumfi grow more pineapples for export.
Launched in May 2013 at Ekumfi Essarkyir, the project was to be jointly sponsored by the Japan International Co-Operation Agency (JICA) and the Central Region Development Commission (CEDECOM).
According to the then Central Regional Minister, Mr. Samuel Sarpong, who launched what was referred to as a GH¢1.2 million Organic Sugar-load Pineapple Growing Project in the Ekumfi District, the project was aimed at expanding and improving sugar-loaf pineapple cultivation, as a means of reducing poverty in the district. Obviously, setting up a factory was not part of the NDC project.
There are many in the district who contend that beyond a few sign boards advertising the initiative, not many farmers actually benefitted from the project.
It is a fact universally acknowledged that many farmers are resisting the idea of listing them for the new factory project as a result of their bitter experience with the CEDECOM initiative, which promised so much. and delivered little.
Many in the district are praying that the new initiative would help deliver them from the bondage of poverty and depravity. It is that serious!
Ebo Quansah in Accra. Tomorrow is going to be a special day in the lives of all citizens of the Ekumfi Traditional Area and all Ghanaians clamouring for jobs and improvement in the quality of life at the centre of the earth. Barely eight months after taking office, and in spite of the huge […] Read Full Story
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