Kumasi, March 4, GNA - Mr Appiah Menkah, a Kumasi-based industrialist, has appealed to the government to introduce measures that would promote the patronage of made in Ghana goods by citizens. He said the importation of cheap and sometimes inferior goods into the country would not help the country and called on the government to give adequate protection to industries to enable them to produce more goods for the nation.

Mr Appiah Menkah was speaking at a forum organised by the Ghana Students Chemical Society in Kumasi as part of their tenth anniversary celebration.

Chemistry Students from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), University of Ghana, University for Development Studies and the University of Cape Coast (UCC) attended the function, which was under the theme: "Chemistry, Society and the recent Discovery of Petroleum in Ghana."

Mr Appiah Menkah said even though stringent measures to curb the influx of foreign goods would not directly promote socio-economic growth, all efforts must be made to protect local industries. "Unless we are prepared to do the right things that are unpopular to voters, Ghana's economy can not grow" he said and mentioned Japan, China and Malaysia as countries that had succeeded by encouraging and supporting local production and utilization of goods. Mr Appiah Menkah commended the students for choosing Chemistry as their course and urged them to make good use of their skills acquired to help the in the development of the nation.