Bono Region ‘Thank You’ tour: 169 Agro factories ready under 1D1F — President

The government has completed 169 different agro-processing factories under its One District One Factory (1D1F) programme to drive the local economy and reduce unemployment, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, has said.

He said aside from that, 152 other factories were under construction, explaining that the Bono Region had seven of such factories, out of which three were operational.

President Akufo-Addo was speaking at the Bono Regional stakeholders engagement in Sunyani last Wednesday to thank the chiefs and people in the region for reposing their trust in him and supporting his administration to succeed.

He said economic and industrial development was one of his priorities, hence the reason to introduce the 1D1F initiative to improve each district’s economy.

Planting for Food and Jobs

President Akufo-Addo said more than two million farmers across the country benefited from the Planting for Food and Jobs (PFJ) initiative.

He said his administration had worked hard to increase and make the cashew industry more lucrative for industry players.

He said his outfit established the Tree Crops Development Authority (TCDA) to manage cashew and five other selected commodities, namely oil palm, rubber, coconut, shea butter and mango.

President Akufo-Addo said he had increased the price of the raw cashew nuts from GH¢8.13p per kilogramme in 2023 to GH¢13 per kilogramme.

He said the country made $530 million annually as export revenue from cashew, explaining that the government had targeted $2 billion annually in the next three years.

He said his administration had achieved a lot and needed a successor such as the Vice-President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, to continue his legacy.

"That is why I am appealing to you to vote for Dr Bawumia. He is the only candidate who will continue, complete and add more to my projects," he said.

Agenda 111

President Akufo-Addo said more than 70 per cent of the entire Agenda 111 projects had been completed, while the rest were at various stages of completion.

He said the programme was ongoing and expressed the hope that he would inaugurate some of the hospitals before his tenure of office ends on January 7, 2025.

President Akufo-Addo disclosed that the Agenda 111 was the idea of Dr Bawumia.

He said Dr Bawumia approached him in his office during the COVID-19 pandemic and suggested the construction of hospitals in districts without hospitals.

He said the government took the idea and decided to add additional seven hospitals - six for the newly created regions and one in the Western Region - because the regional hospital was not up to standard and was also quite old.

He said his outfit had also completed the conversion and refurbishment of several other important hospitals in the region, including the Tain District Hospital at Nsawkaw in 2021.

President Akufo-Addo said his administration had improved the health infrastructure in the region to promote quality health delivery.

He said infrastructural projects such as roads and water systems were scattered across the region, emphasising that he had constructed more roads than any other government in the history of Ghana.

President Akufo-Addo appealed to the chiefs and people of the region to vote for Dr Bawumia to complete the projects, particularly roads and the Agenda 111 project.

Free SHS Policy

On Free Senior High School (SHS), he said, the policy had increased the country’s SHS enrolment from 800,000 in 2017 to 1.6 million.

Additionally, he said a total of 5.7 million young people had benefited from the Free SHS Policy since its introduction.

President Akufo-Addo said although the policy was free, the government ensured it delivered quality education.

He said, for instance, in 2023 the results released by the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) were the best in the history of WAEC.

He said education played a critical role in the development of any country, explaining that all the developed countries such as Korea prioritised education right from 1957.

President Akufo-Addo said before his administration, only 18 per cent of children who were enrolled in schools ended up completing their education in tertiary institutions.

He said he vowed to invest heavily in the country's education to increase that phenomenon to 40 per cent by 2030.

He said before he took over the government, over 100,000 Junior High School (JHS) students with good grades were unable to pursue their SHS education because their parents could not afford that.

"So in 10 years, we had more than one million young Ghanaians who could not pursue SHS education even though they have the right qualifications,” he indicated.

President Akufo-Addo said that was the reason why he introduced the Free SHS Policy to make it accessible to all Ghanaian children.

President Akufo-Addo criticised former President and flag bearer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), John Dramani Mahama, for claiming that he introduced the policy.

Writer's email: [email protected]