Wa, May 6, GNA - The government has carried out feasibility studies on the way to improve on the production of sheabutter in Northern Ghana. Subsequently it would give recommendations on how it would work to make it acceptable in the world market and create job opportunities for Ghanaians.
Mr. Abraham Dwuma Odoom, a Deputy Minister of Local Government and Rural Development announced this at Wa on Thursday when he interacted with the community in the municipality as part of his two-day visit to the Upper West Region.
He said just like how the cocoa hi-tech programme had improved on cocoa production, the new techniques on sheabutter would avoid waste and come out with high quality products for both export and domestic consumption.
The Deputy Minister advised the community members who were mostly traders to establish trade links with people in other regions to identify goods in higher demand in those areas so that they could sell them out.
"Most of the time we experience glut in our goods, while other people elsewhere are in need of such goods," he added.
Mr. Odoom told the people to move away from retailing and engage themselves in productive ventures where they were likely to reap more gains.
He regretted that poultry farmers in the country were importing yellow corn to feed their birds, which Ghanaian farmers could easily capitalise on to make money in the coming years.
Livestock production, he said was another area people should concentrate on since the risk involved was less than other ventures. Nana T.K. Serbeh, Chief of the Akan community in the municipality appealed to the government to consider working on major roads linking the region to attract more investors and trading opportunities into the region.
He further appealed to the youth not to engage in drugs and other illegal practices, which could go a long way to mar their future in the country.
Mr. Agyeman Duah, a leading member of the Akan community appealed to the indigenes of the Upper West Region to see them as partners in the development of the region and not as strangers as some of them were already firmly rooted.
