Nana Addo to replicate Malaysian experience in Ghana

In his quest to replicate in Ghana the successes that Malaysia has chalked in the production of Palm oil, which had helped transformed its economy, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, 2016 flagbearer of the New Patriotic Party, intends to set up a Palm Oil Processing factory at Fomena in the Adanse-Fomena constituency, when elected president in November.

He said, apart from mining activities, the area abounds in palm plantation which the nation should tap for the development of the area and the region as a whole, noting that with the setting up of the processing factory, many of the youth have been made redundant as a result of the collapse of the Anglo gold mines.

Nana Akufo-Addo gave the assurance when he paid a courtesy call at the palace of the President of the Adanse Traditional Council, Opegyakotwire Bonsra Afriyie II, at Fomena, Friday, as part of his ‘Rise and Build’ tour in the Ashanti region.

Akufo Addo further said, Malaysia, a country which prior to the discovery of palm fruit from Ghana was walloping in abject poverty, has a turn around when its leaders, after seeing the benefits of the palm fruit, devised a long term plan to tap them.

‘This is what my government will do. Now Malaysia receives over 16 billion US Dollars each year from the production of oil palm in the country…God has given us this wonderful tree and the NPP government will ensure that we utilize it to our benefit, we will establish a processing factory here in Adanseman in order to utilise the benefits of palm, ‘ he stated.

The NPP Presidential Candidate also assured that, when elected president, his government will restore the scrapped allowances of both Teacher Trainees and Nurses, asserting that the decision by the NDC government to scrap these allowances is an unpopular one which only shows the level of ineptitude of the government.

According to him, even with no oil money in the days of former President Kuffour’s administration, it was able to pay all allowances due teachers and nurses, and wondered why in spite of the oil money that this government is enjoying, it could not pay for these allowances.

“This clearly tells us of the kind of government and leaders we have. During our time, things were done right and even with no oil money, the NPP government managed to pay all allowances to our students at nursing and teacher training colleges.

“We all know the level of incompetence being exhibited by them and we (NPP) will ensure things are done right for our students,” Nana Addo promised.

Akufo Addo also promised that when elected the President of Ghana, his government will critically scrutinise the issues that had led to the collapsed of the Anglogold Ashanti mines and find ways to revamp it to give jobs to the people.

Nana Addo and his entourage later addressed the people of Fomena, where he reiterated his commitment to provide jobs for the people of the area. He said, under his presidency, the people of Fomena will enjoy the goodies as he plans to roll out programmes and policies that will enure to their benefit.

To him, the NPP government will not let the many talents in the youth go waste and that they will make sure all human resources in the country are assembled for the progress of Ghana.

The Obuasi township was shaken to its foundation when Nana Addo and his team arrived to sell their message of hope to the people, as the security detail of the flagbearer and the police had it extremely tough in controlling the heavy crowd that thronged the streets of the township to welcome the man they believe has the antidote to the country’s problems.

Seeing the massive crowd and the love shown him, Nana Addo had no option than to rise through the rooftop of his vehicle to respond to the cheers from the crowd, who were chanting: ‘Change is Coming’ and clamouring for the return of the NPP.

Addressing them at the Obuasi Black Park, Akufo-Addo encouraged the people to guard against tendencies that would derail the gains made so far towards victory in November.

Akufo-Addo also promised that his government, God-willing in 2017, will resuscitate the collapsed Free Mass Cocoa Spraying exercise introduced by the previous NPP government, and make sure Ghana produce more cocoa to boost the economy.

He said the NPP has the track record to show for it, stressing that Ghanaians saw and experienced the massive developmental projects that the NPP administration, led by ex-President Kufuor, brought to the country during the NPP’s eight years in government.