By: Tabitha Kugbonu | Voltaonlinegh |
The District Chief Executive (DCE) for South Tongu in the Volta Region, Emmanuel Louis Agama has insisted that through the district assembly, a banana farm project was awarded to RADIKAL Ghana, an Indian company in line with government’s 1 District-1 Factory (1D1F) initiative.
Mr. Agama said he was not lying to the good people of the district when he said his administration had lobbied for development projects including the banana farm project to come to the district.
In October 2018, the DCE together with DCEs for Central Tongu and Ada East cut sod for the commencement of a 5,000-acre banana farm at Kpotame in the district aimed at giving employment to over 600 indigenous citizens for the first phase which would be mainly for export purposes. There was to be a second phase which would process the banana from the farm into chewing gum among others for local consumption and for export.
READ ALSO: South Tongu Gets Banana Farm under 1D1F
Meanwhile, almost a year later, nothing could be seen by the residents and this got most of them talking and wondering if indeed the project was really under the government’s flagship programme, the 1D1F especially when the company was wholly private-owned.
The comments by the residents became even louder when the DCE during the Volta Regional Town Hall Meeting on Friday, June 28 at Ho Technical University, touted his tenure’s achievements in bringing development projects to the area and among other things, referred to the banana farm project.
In reaction, Mr. Agama told Voltaonlinegh that the project was a Public-Private Partnership and assured the people that work had already started on the land and called on those playing politics with the issue to stop.
He explained that the 1D1F did not mean that government would establish these factories but rather, it would partner with private entities and provide the enabling environment to facilitate the establishment of these factories just as the South Tongu District Assembly was providing support to the banana plantation by making it possible for a tractor to plough the land with pumping of water from the Volta Lake into the farm ongoing.
According to him, these activities had been facilitated by the assembly to ensure that the project came into being to provide jobs for the teeming youth in the area and said that was what the 1D1f initiative was all about.
Source: www.voltaonlinegh.com
