General News of Sunday, 7 January 2007

Source: GNA

DFP to establish Gari Factories

Awutu-Panim (C/R), Jan. 7, GNA- The Democratic Freedom Party (DFP) has plans to produce Gari in large quantities for export to generate adequate revenue for the country when given the mandate to rule the nation.

Apart from the immense economic returns the nation would get, the move would help solve the unemployment problem confronting the nation as it would offer millions of the jobless youth in the regions permanent employment.

To ensure the fulfilment of this dream, the party plans to provide each of the ten regions, a giant Gari Processing Factory and encourage cassava growers to produce more to feed the proposed industries by offering them a better deal.

Mr. John Amekah, Deputy General Secretary of the DFP said these when he addressed a cross-section of people, including farmers, fishermen and DFP regional executives at Awutu-Panim, near Ayensuako, in the Central Region.

The meeting was to explain the aims and objectives of the party to people in and around Awutu-Panim, who are mostly cocoa and food crops farmers.

Mr. Amekah attributed the failure of the Ayensu Starch Factory at Awutu-Bawjiase to lack of proper planning by the initiators, adding that when DFP takes over the administration of the country and set up the proposed Gari factories, cassava growers would be worth their salt. He said that the country could produce millions, if not billions of tonnes of gari to famine-threatened African countries annually to generate enough revenue to cushion her economy, adding that if succeeding governments had thought of it and initiated moves towards that decades ago.

Besides, the commodity could also be exported to some Western and Middle-East countries for greater economic returns if proper feasibility studies were carried out in those countries to secure a lasting market for the commodity.

Mr. Amekah described as untrue, the perception by some leading politicians that no political group can solve the numerous socio-economic problems facing the nation single-handedly.

He maintained that, "the mere fact that the two leading political parties, NDC and NPP have, as yet, not been able to secure the right antidote for the country's economic woes, does not imply that no political group could do so".

The Deputy General Secretary said that the DFP has got the answer for the country's economic and other predicaments and asked the electorate to give the DFP the nod in the forthcoming Presidential and Parliamentary elections in 2008.

He said the DFP would unite the people, irrespective of their political, religious and ethnic backgrounds, to ensure effective national cohesion and progress all the time. Professor E. S, Okyne, a founding member of the DFP, who chaired the function, also assured Ghanaians of the party's determination to salvage the nation from its socio-economic predicament. 07 Jan. 07