Government flagship programmes are real — Eastern Regional Minister

The Eastern Regional Minister, Mr Eric Kwakye Darfour, has assured Ghanaians that the government’s flagship programmes such as the One-district, One-factory, Planting for Food and Jobs, Nation Builders Corps (NaBCo), among other programmes, are real and will help put the country on its feet.

He said what was necessary for the success of the programmes was for all Ghanaians to lend support to it in every metropolis, municipality and district in the country.

According to the regional minister, “We have the resources in the country and what is necessary is how we, as a country, would tap into our natural resources to our advantage.”

“Even though we have the resources, if we do not make use of them we shall always complain while our resources are lying in our own country, and that is why the present government has brought the flagship programmes and we need to support it,’’ Mr Darfour explained.

Mr Eric Kwakye Darfour (middle), the Eastern Regional Minister,  listening to the supervisor of the company (2nd right) as he explains how the log was removed

Working visit

The regional minister was addressing the media after a working visit to Dedeso Share Holdings, a company that removes submerged trees from the Volta River at Sedorm in the Asuogyaman District.

The minister was accompanied by the District Chief Executives for Asuogyaman and Upper Manya Krobo, Messrs Samuel Kwame Agyakum and Felix Nartey Odjao respectively, as well as the Municipal Chief Executive for Lower Manya Krobo, Mr Simon Kweku Tetteh, and the Asuogyaman District Coordinating Director, Mr Moses Kobla Joshua.

Mr Darfour, who is also the NPP Member of Parliament (MP) for Nkawkaw, said the government was desirous of creating jobs for Ghanaians, and that any company that fell in line with the government’s policy of job creation must be fully supported to enable the youth to get jobs to do.

The regional minister, who was taken through the processes of how the submerged trees are removed from the river and how they are processed in the factory, was highly impressed and commended the Dedeso Holdings for the quality timber products and the creation of jobs for the people.

He said he was happy that the work of the company to remove submerged trees which would go a long way to curtail accidents that had been occurring on the Volta River over the years, adding that navigation would now be safer than before.

Mr Darfour, however, advised the company to follow due process and pay the required taxes to the state.

He also urged management to create a cordial relationship between the company and the neighbours in the communities where the company was operating.

The Managing Partner of the company, Mr Francis M. Kalitsi, expressed gratitude to the regional minister and his chief executives for the visit to acquaint themselves with the operations of the company.

Corporate social responsibility

Mr Kalitsi said as part of its corporate social responsibility, the company had dug boreholes for the Sedorm community which hitherto was drinking from the Volta River which made the people suffer from water-borne diseases.

He said the company also maintained the roads in the company’s operational areas.

He said currently, the company had employed 70 workers but when the company was in full operation, it would employ as many as between 500 and 1,000 workers, and called for the government’s support, adding: “We shall continue to maintain a good and healthy relationship with the communities where the company operates.”

Advice to fishermen

The President of the National Inland Canoe Fishermen council, Mr Jacob Tetteh Ageke, urged all the fishermen along the Volta Lake to exercise patience and co-operate with the company as the removal of the submerged trees in the river was in their interest.