President Akufo-Addo, has assured the Chiefs and People of the Upper East Region of the government’s commitment to revamp the defunct Tomato and Meat factories in the area.

The President gave the assurance when the Upper East Regional Minister, Rockson Ayine Bukari, and the Vice President of the Upper East Regional House of Chiefs, Naba Baba Salifu Lemyaarum, jointly made the appeal to him, during his two-day visit to the region, to thank the people for endorsing him as the President of Ghana.

The tour was also to interact with them to know their concerns and elicit their feedback on his policies and programmes.

The opinion leaders told the President that the two factories were the major assets of the region, and that revamping them would not only create jobs, but also help create wealth and reduce migration from the area to urban centres.

The President stated that, the Minister of Trade and Industry, Alan Kyerematen, was working hard to revamp the two factories, while the Government was also working at rehabilitating the Vea Irrigation Dam to boost irrigated-farming, and enhance the supply of potable water to the Bolgatanga Municipality and the Bongo District.

The President thanked the Regional House of Chiefs and the Regional Minister for appreciating the Free Senior High School Policy and other flagships programmes, saying; although there were some teething problems with the implementation, the Government was doing everything possible to rectify them.

He said he would ensure that all uncompleted school projects in the region were completed to absorb more Senior High School students as requested by the Regional House of Chiefs.

“The Free Senior High School has come to stay, those who thought it was a political gimmick have been proved wrong and we shall continue to roll out the policy to ensure that our children meet the current global standards in this 21st Century, particularly, in the area of ICT,” the President stated.

He said the Government had also intervened to save the National Health Insurance Scheme, which was on the verge of collapse as the Scheme owed 1.2 billion Ghana cedis; part of which had been settled.

On Agriculture, the President stated that in his short period in office, about 200,000 farmers had been supported with subsidised fertiliser and other farm inputs under the flagship programme of Planting for Food and Jobs.

“In addition, farmers are now having access to Agriculture Extension Officers to educate them on good farming practices to help ensure food security,” he stated.

“It is my hope that by the end of the tenure of my office, two and half million farmers in Ghana would have been supported to help feed the nation to stop the importation of food from other countries.”

He, however, called on the Chiefs and communities to support the Government to arrest those few selfish people who were trying to thwart the efforts, by smuggling the subsidised fertilisers to the neighbouring countries for sale. He said plans were also far advanced to ensure that 660 communities in the Upper East Region benefited from the Rural Electrification Project and reiterated the Government‘s commitment to the redevelopment of the railway industry.