Asutifi and Asunafo districts select priority projects

Kenyasi (B/A), Oct 7, GNA - Separate workshops on Rural Enterprises Development Programme with particular reference to the President's Special Initiative (PSI) have been organized for stakeholders from the Asutifi and Asunafo districts of the Brong-Ahafo Region.

Organised under the auspices of the Ministry of Trade and Industries and President's Special Initiative it was designed to educate participants about the rudiments of the Rural Enterprise Development Programme and benefits the rural communities stand to derive from it.

The two districts fall within the second phase of the nation-wide programme which is estimated to cost 29.27 million dollars to be co-financed by the Ghana government, the International Fund for Agricultural Development and the African Development Bank.

Addressing participants at Kenyasi and Goaso the National Coordinator of the Rural Enterprises Development Programme, Mr Lawrence Prempeh, re-assured Ghanaians of the NPP Government's desire to improve living standards.

He said the President's Special Initiatives are one of the surest means to provide employment to the teeming youth who have scattered on the streets of the cities searching for non-existing jobs. The Coordinator called on districts willing to adopt any of the PSIs to be guided by the interest of Ghana rather than by partisan and parochial instincts.

He appealed to the two districts to adopt projects that are commercially viable, responsive to the demands of the teeming unemployed youth and have the potential to turn round the fortunes of the citizenry.

At Kenyasi participants comprising traditional leaders, assembly members and the district assembly staff unanimously adopted the production and processing of ginger on large scale as their priority project under the scheme.

Goaso participants choose plantain processing and preservation to offset the 30 percent annual loss of produce due to lack of storage facilities and the capacity of producers to add value to it.

A seven-member oversight committee was set up for each of the districts with the DCEs as chairmen to facilitate the speedy and smooth take-off of the projects.