The
Ashanti Regional Minister, Hon. Peter Anarfi Mensah, has underscored the need
for local manufacturers and exporters to improve on the value of exports from
the country, in order to position the country to gain competitive advantage in
the exports market.
He
said Ghana stands the chance to take a leading role in the exports trade if the
quality of exports abroad is significantly improved.
He
said a lot more has to be done, particularly those in the manufacturing sector,
to enhance the ‘finishing and packaging’ of goods and other items exported from
the country, while also shifting from the traditional export to non-traditional
export trade.
The
Ashanti Regional Minister, who said this at the visit of the Chief Executive
Officer of the Export Trade, Agriculture and Industrial Development Fund
(EDAIF), Dr. Bafour Osei, and some officials, at the Regional Coordinating
Council, in Kumasi, called on the youths to embrace activities of the Fund.
He
said EDAIF has the capacity to massively reduce the unemployment situation in
the country, and thus charged the youth to bring their resourcefulness to bare
and take advantage of the existence of the Fund to enter into productive
ventures.
The
former educationist also waded into the calls for a paradigm shift in focus of
the country’s educational delivery system to one that equip students with the
necessary entrepreneurial skills.
He
was very optimistic that the Fund, in the not too distant future, would be able
to turn round the economic fortunes of the country as he relentlessly urged the
youth to go into agriculture production.
He
pledged the support and readiness of his outfit to collaborate and corporate
with the Fund, in whatever direction, to ensure the success of the operations
of the Fund in the Ashanti Region and beyond.
The
CEO of EDAIF, Dr. Bafour Osei, explained EDAIF has undertaken a number of
initiatives, in addition to pursuing the mandate of the Fund, to also help to
tackle the country’s unemployment situation.
He
said for example that the EDAIF contributed the seed capital for the
establishment of the Youth Entrepreneurship Support Fund, launched by President
John Dramani Mahama in the beginning of the year, as well as a Graduate Entrepreneurship
initiative, which targets products of the various tertiary institutions in the
country.
He
said the Graduate Entrepreneurship initiative is intended to support and
empower graduates with innovative ideas through an incubation system to help
them to develop bankable projects which could also offer employment
opportunities to others.
He
consequently said EDAIF has received a number of applications with this
initiative, with a number of applicants from the Ashanti Region, and are being
evaluated for the award of the sponsorship likely by July 2015.
Dr.
Osei also disclosed that in addition to these initiatives, the Fund has also come
up with a Cassava Project to look at the industrial use of cassava. He said
this Project in its first phase has targeted at those in the Ashanti, Brong
Ahafo and Northern Regions.
He
said it is planned to produce cassava floor as an industrial product which will
run on a simple module whereby some key people would be expected on board to
setup processing facilities and work together with other out-growers to ensure
sustained production.
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