The government is in the process of recruiting transactional advisors to assess the viability of revamping some defunct State Owned Enterprises (SOEs), the Minister of Trade, Agribusiness and Industry, Elizabeth Ofosu-Adjare, has disclosed.
The transactional advisors would assess the operations of the enterprises, determine their present value and propose the best operational options that will make them viable.
The companies considered for this revamp are the Akosombo Industrial Company, Volta Star Company Limited, Zuarungu Meat Factory, Pwalugu Tomato Factory, and Wulugu Livestock Station.
At the Government Accountability Series at the Presidency in Accra yesterday, Mrs Ofosu-Adjaye revealed that the renewed focus on revamping the SOEs fall under Government’s Rapid Industrialisation for Jobs Initiative.
She explained that the initiative aims to accelerate industrial growth by promoting value addition for both domestic consumption and export.
The initiative also focuses on establishing strategic industries and reviving defunct ones to create jobs, stimulate economic growth, and enhance Ghana’s competitive edge in the global market, she added.
To this end, she emphasised, policies on textiles and garments manufacturing, pharmaceutical, special economic zones policy, and automotive components manufacturing have been developed.
According to Mrs Ofosu-Adjare, MP, Techiman North, seven mini Agrobusiness processing factories at various stages of completion with machines already procured were being established to add value to raw materials for accelerated job creation under the feed industries initiative.
Their locations and value chains are Bole, groundnuts; Haatso, poultry; Ajumako, maize; Bodi, plantain; Sefwi Wiawso, cocoa and plantain husk; Tano-Boase, Cashew; and Dwomo, ginger.
Additional agro-processing plants in the Northern, Central, Ahafo, Bono East, North East and Western North regions in the yam, fish, poultry, cashew nuts, shea butter, and palm kennel oil value chains are also to be operationalise to create jobs for people in those areas.
They are all expected to come on stream this year.
On the Komenda Sugar Factory, the minister said an interim management committee had been put together to assess the company for its revitalisation.
She noted that Ghanaian firms were being supported to fully leverage opportunities presented by the African Continental Free Trade Area headquarters here.
“We are urging our industries to be export ready in the areas of packaging, standardisation, so that when produce in Ghana are exported, they’ll be accepted as wholesome.
“Ghana is touted as net exporter of raw materials. That is not good. We need to add value and once we are adding value, we’ll be exporting at a good price and creating jobs in the process,” Mrs Ofosu-Adjare stated.
BY JULIUS YAO PETETSI
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