One district, one factory! Which will be your favorite?
Unemployment is rife in Ghana; the 48% rate suggested by the World Bank in 2016 is a red alert, and the need to industrialize at a rapid and large scale is known to all as the remedy.
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Previous governments have made efforts to industralize Ghana, but the scale too was insignificant to make the necessary impact. Talk of the starch, shoe and sugar factories initiated by previous governments and one will realize how little an impact they made in the employment sector (considering the rate at hand), not to talk of the entire economy.
One district, one factory!
This explains the excitement of many – evidenced by the election results, when our President, then Candidate Nana Akufo-Addo proposed to establish a factory in every district; to put it in their words ‘One district, One Factory’. On a count, Ghana has 275 factories and if the President and his team deliver at least 50% of this by the end of the first term, we would make a huge progress in industrialization.
My favorite and the arguments
Now back to my question, out of these 275 would-be factories, which will be your favorite and why? I will tell you about mine and why I think it should be your favorite too.
Ghana produces a lot of cocoa and with production figures as high as 690,000 metric tons (for 2015/2016 crop season), heavens know why we don’t have large factories processing cocoa into body and hair creams, beverages or soaps but rather export most of it?
I’m aware of Golden Tree products like chocolates and other cocoa beverages but what is the scale of production and how fast do the products sell? Again and on a lighter side, Ghandour Cosmetics produces Princess Cocoa Butter, but many of the middle class people it targets prefer skin toning (not bleaching please) creams, thus affecting the production scale. Remember critical jobs for skilled and unskilled youth need to be created as soon as possible!
My proposal is for this government to set up at least 10 factories in these cocoa growing areas to produce Cocoa Drink, yes cocoa drink factory!
My former lecturer was very excited and immediately shared when I first thought about the idea and updated my Facebook status with it. I believe these factories will give our economy great value, not to mention the jobs that would be created. We have it all - the cocoa, lands, and job-hungry youth; all we need is the commitment of government. Let’s package this cocoa drink in sachets, like we package drinking water (pure water), distribute all over the country and we’ll be in business! Considering how fast “pure water” sells, something more nutritious, delicious, convenient and affordable like this cocoa drink will be a hot cake.
Looking ahead
My suggestion is not for us to stop exporting cocoa and process them to sachet cocoa drinks; rather, we can commit just 10 or 5% of our annual production into this venture, and improve the packaging and the quantity of production subsequently. The idea is to produce something which has a high demand using what we readily have, in order to toss out needed jobs quickly.
The vision should be to replace all these imported sugar and fizzle drinks with a healthy and delicious cocoa drink produced in Ghana and consumed around the world. This wouldn’t be tough because many trust cocoa from Ghana just as they trust soccer from England!
Writer: Rachel Dziedzorm Aglasu
Email:[email protected]