Trade Minister wants more electricity for the industries

Mr Haruna Iddrisu, the Minister of Trade and Industry, has appealed to the power providers to do more to assure industries of regular electricity supply.

This was important to keep them in business, he said, when responding to concerns expressed by some people in the Asante-Akim South District about the current load-shedding during a tour of the area.

He had gone there to see at first-hand how small and medium enterprises (SMEs) were performing. Mr Iddrisu said there was a need for a special arrangement under which businesses could have uninterrupted energy.

The tour was organized by the assembly in concert with the Rural Enterprises Project (REP) and places he visited included a Sawmill at Gyadam, Bamboo Service Center and Palm Oil Production Center both at Obogu and a Welding and Fabrication Shop at Juaso.

Mr Iddrisu said the government was fully aware of the telling effect of the load shedding on industry and was working hard to improve electricity generation capacity from 2,800 megawatts to 5,000 megawatts.

He said he was happy to see that a wood miser had been acquired by the REP for a group of young people in the area to help discourage illegal chainsaw activities and protect the forest and gave the assurance that his ministry would facilitate the process of accessing funds to purchase more of the machines.

He pledged support for the Bamboo Service Center to enable it create more jobs. Mr. De-graft Forkuo, the District Chief Executive, said the assembly and the Business Advisory Center (BAC), implementers of REP programmes, had since 2005 provided assistance to many of the SMEs. He said it had spent about GH¢125,437.07 to support their growth.