Michael Okyere Baafi, a Deputy Minister for Trade and Industry, has inaugurated the Nkrankwanta Rice Processing Factory Limited in the Dormaa West District of the Bono Region.
The factory is part of the One District, One Factory (1D1F) Common User Facility (CUF) initiative under the Rural Enterprise Programme (REP) of the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MoTI).
The total cost of the facility is GHS 7.243 million which covers the construction of the factory building, processing plant and machinery, offices, office equipment and a Nissan Double Cabin Pickup vehicle.
The factory is equipped with modern milling and packaging plants, a standby generator, a mechanized borehole for water supply, a warehouse, fully furnished office accommodation, a conference room, a laboratory, and a canteen for the workers.
Construction of the facility started in January 2020 and was completed and handed over on July 15, 2021, and equipped with state-of-the-art rice processing equipment capable of producing 1.5 to 2.8 tonnes of processed rice per hour.
The 1D1F CUF is an agro-industrial factory with funding support from the African Development Bank (AfDB) and aims at enhancing the value addition of primary agricultural commodities and empowering farmers and other agricultural value chain actors who lack the financial capacity to establish their processing facilities.
The facility could directly employ about 110 workers, including management professionals, factory floor workers, and plantation management workers who would work on the nucleus rice farms.
Mr Baafi emphasised, the 1D1F initiative was a vital component of the government’s industrial transformation agenda and aims at promoting rural industrialisation, saying, unlike previous efforts that focused solely on physical infrastructure, the 1D1F programme promoted commercially- viable business initiatives that generated sustainable and accelerated economic development for rural communities.
He added that through the 1D1F initiative, the government aimed to equip and empower business promoters, including Farmer Based Organizations (FBOs) to utilise local resources in manufacturing high-demand products for domestic and international markets.
Mr Baafi said the approach would create job opportunities, utilise local strengths and resources, and contribute to the overall value chain using efficient technology.
Mr Kwasi Attah-Antwi, the National Director of the Rural Enterprise Programme (REP), mentioned that 12 rice-based FBOs had been linked to the Nkrankwanta CUF.
He said, those FBOs had been registered as Limited by guaranteed companies with the Registrar General’s Department and consisted of over 150 farmers who had formed a mother association called the Dormaa West District Union of Rice Farmers Association.
Mr Francis Kwadwo Oppong, the Dormaa West District Chief Executive, commended President Nana Addo Dankwa Akuffo-Addo for including rice farmers in the area in his vision to transform Ghana’s economy from dependency on the import and export of raw materials to a focus on industrialisation, value addition and the export of processed goods through the 1D1F initiative.
He noted the facility had brought joy to the farmers in the area and motivated them to work harder to feed the country and improve rice exports.
Mr Sampson Koranteng, a rice farmer who owns 50 acres of rice farm, expressed excitement about the establishment of the facility in the community.
He said the burden of transporting raw rice to Kasapin in the Asunafo North Municipality of the Ahafo region for milling had become a thing of the past and the money for the transportation could be used to meet other family socio-economic demands to enhance their lives.
A nine-member Board of Directors was constituted and inaugurated for the factory and charged with the responsibility of overseeing its day-to-day management and operations.
Source: www.ghanaweb.com