Kwahu East ups effort to woo investors

The Kwahu East District Assembly has upped its effort to woo investors to establish businesses in the area to create jobs and wealth for the people.

As part of this, it has held a day’s investment forum to discuss the abundant economic opportunities in the district.

This brought together over 200 people made up of business executives, bank managers, chiefs and assembly members.

“Unearthing the investment potential of the Kwahu East District for the One District, One Factory” was the theme chosen for the event.

Mr. Isaac Agyepong, the District Chief Executive (DCE), said the goal was to seek strong partnership with the private sector to boost the area’s economy and transform the lives of the people.

He mentioned tourism and agriculture as areas investors could put their money.

The district has tourist attraction sites and has been producing huge tons of tiger-nuts, mango, vegetables and groundnuts.

Mr. Agyepong said factories could be built to process these to achieve value addition.

He said the assembly was working to get the needed infrastructure – roads, electricity and water provided for smooth business operation.

Dr. George Afranie, Chief Executive Officer of Process Engineering Associates, noted that groundnuts, tiger-nuts, soya-bean, cowpea and coconut could be cultivated and processed into non-dairy products to replace cow milk which contained high level of facts and cholesterol.

Setting up a factory for this, he said could create about 14,000 jobs for the people and appealed to the chiefs to provide land.

Professor Tano Debrah, Technical Adviser of Somhope Industries Limited, made a strong case for cultivation of tropical almond and said there was increasing demand for its high quality oils on both the local and foreign markets.

The tropical almond tree starts producing nuts within two years after planting and can thrive in every part of the country.

Mr. Emmanuel Asiedu of the Gratis Foundation said it was ready to manufacture various types of machine for processing of crops and vegetables.

The Member of Parliament (MP) for the Abetifi, Mr. Bryan Acheampong, announced the construction of a 600-bed hotel at Nkwatia to take care of the growing tourist arrivals in the area.

Daasebre Akoamoah Agyepong II, Omanhene of Kwahu, promised to release land for large scale crop cultivation and processing.