Feature by Alice Tettey
Cape Coast, Nov. 12, - The
Central Region of Ghana has been blessed with vast natural resources some of
which remain untapped. These when fully harnessed could turn the region’s
fortunes around with attendant rippling effects on the national economy.
Its ancient city; Cape Coast,
served as the first administrative capital of the then Gold Coast, and is now
the Regional Capital.
The region is endowed with vast
arable lands and rich deposits of natural resources – clay, gold, bauxite and
stone quarries and also produces cash crops, such as oil palm, cocoa and
cashew, cassava, pineapple and citrus plantations. Salt ponds also abound
there.
With a population of about 2.5
million people, the historical region has some top world class monuments,
including castles and forts; while the famous Kakum National Park, developed
with a canopy walkway in 1995, serves as an additional tourism site giving both
foreign and local visitors the opportunity to view its unique fauna and flora.
The region’s 168-kilometre
pristine coastal stretch and beachfronts are a sight to behold and could
attract huge numbers of tourists from across the globe if well developed and
managed. That could significantly bring in more revenue for development.
Indeed, posterity will judge this
generation if it fails to tap the enormous rich resources nature has bestowed
on the region, referred to as the “heartbeat of tourism” in the country, and
allowed them to lay fallow or negatively exploited, whilst its inhabitants
struggle with economic hardship – live in squalor and poverty.
Additionally, the rich culture of
the people is linked with the numerous annual festivals, including those of
Winneba - “Aboakyer”, “Oguaa- Fetu Afahye”, “Edina -Bakatue” and Anomabo -
“Okyir”.
To add colour to these festivals
are the displays of the various “Asafo” companies always - in their lovely
crafted traditional attires and accoutrements,which serve as baits of
attraction for large numbers of tourists who visit the area, all year round.
Combined with its wealth of
natural endowments are the numerous prestigious educational institutions - both
secondary and tertiary - earning it the accolade, “the cradle of education” in
Ghana. Mfanstipim Boys; Mfantsiman Girls; Wesley Girls; Adisadel Boys; St.
Augustine’s Boys; the Academy of Christ the King; Holy Child Girls, the Ghana
National and Apam are some of the Senior High Schools.
Again, the region has produced
eminent personalities and statesmen and women who had left their footprints in
the sands of time. Indeed, many others
are still at the helm of affairs both in national and international bodies.
Notable among the personalities
are the late Busumuru Kofi Annan, former Secretary General of the United
Nations, Former President John Evans Atta Mills (of blessed memory), Mr Kweku
Awotwe, the current boss of the Volta River Authority, Professor Naana Jane
Opoku-Agyemang, a former Vice Chancellor of the University of Cape Coast and a
former Minister of Education, to mention only a few.
Of course, it is worth mentioning
the “Edwumawura”, Dr. Papa Kwesi Nduom, the founder of GN Companies, whose vast
investments - hotels, banks, factories, a stadium and more – continue to
provide employment for thousands of Ghanaians.
It is, therefore, a paradox that
a region, blessed with both natural and quality human resources, could have
about a third of its population wallowing in abject poverty.
It is more disturbing that at
present, foreigners dominate in the exploitation of a large partsof the
resources; leaving the citizens at the mercy these people.
With the introduction of the one
district one factory (1D1F) initiative - the Government’s flagship industrialization
policy, it is expected that the fortunes of the Central Region would change for
the better and a different story told in the next few years to bring smiles on
the faces of its citizens both home and abroad.
The initiative when well
implemented would significantly raise their hope that there is a flourishing
light at the end of the tunnel.
It is imperative that all defunct
factories, including the Komenda Sugar Factory, Saltpond Ceramics, Asebu Fruit
Processing Plant and the Bawjiase Starch Factory are revamped under the 1D1F to
support the economy of the region.
DISTRICT POTENTIALS
From Ayanfuri in the West to
Nyanyano in the East, all the 20 Metropolitan, Municipal and Districts have
their own unique investment potentials that must be fully harnessed by sourcing
for investors to develop every resource.
The region must never again be
labeled as the fourth poorest in the country. Every Metropolis, Municipal or
District has something that could culminate into large investment returns.
For instance, in Upper Denkyira
West, which has Diaso as its capital, the economic activities there include
food crop production, fish farming, cocoa farming, agro-processing and small
scale mining. The possible investments here include large scale cassava
cultivation and processing, wood processing and also cocoa processing.
Also in Upper Denkyira East where
the district capital is Dunkwa-On-Offin, agriculture, wood processing and small
scale mining, are the most dominant ventures with promising investment
potentials in manufacturing of bricks and tiles, establishment of small scale
jewellery companies, agro-processing centres and manufacturing of knocked down
furniture for export.
Fish processing, tourism,
ceramics and cashew cultivation are rife in the Efutu Municipality which has
Winneba as its capital, with fishing as the mainstay of the local economy. Investors
could consider boat building and repairs, building of landing sites, cold
storage facilities, real estate and beach front developments.
Awutu Senya District with
Awutu-Breku, as its capital, has its fair share of the good things. Cultivation
of cassava in commercial quantities for starch processing, traditional crops
such as pineapple and papaya and trading are the mainstay of the district’s
economy. Starch factories and exports of pineapple and papaya could be
considered.
The Komenda-Edina-Eguafo-Abrem
(KEEA) and Mfansteman Municipalities as well as Gomoa West District have large
quantities of salt deposits that can be developed as the key investment
products for export, aside other products such as sugarcane in Komenda for
sugar production, pineapple and honey processing in Mfansteman and food and
livestock production in the Gomoa West.
The Hemang-Lower-Denkyira
District is rich in the cultivation of oil palm plantation. Investment
opportunities are processing of oil palm into palm oil with its bi products
into Amino Acids and deodorized or refined cooking oil. Establishment of
Cottage Industries and the production of handicrafts are also viable.
These are but many of these
opportunities found in the various MMDAs in the region, which must be harnessed
to the maximum to benefit, the economy both at the district and national
levels.
To successfully achieve this,
theCentral Region Development Commission (CEDECOM), instituted in the late
1980s as the technical and economic wing of the Regional Coordinating Council
to help identify and tap the economic and tourism potentials should not be left
out in the 1D1F programme.
This is because it has over the
years drawn a comprehensive programme of action and has been instrumental in
charting the course to economic boom of the region since its inception and
achieved a lot in the 1990s.
CEDECOM has adopted strategies to
implement clear cut Economic Intervention Projects to facilitate economic
growth by providing strategic functions categorized under five main units.
The first being Integrated
Tourism Development, the unit mooted and successfully organized the
Pan-African-Historical-Theatre-Festival (PANAFEST) from 1992 until the
government decided to make PANAFEST a foundation.’
PANAFEST became a major
international tourism event on the country’s calendar biannually and attracted
large numbers of African Americans from the Diaspora and other tourists into
the region and through it the many of those, who, settled in Cape Coast and
Elmina are excelling in their various fields of endeavor. It must, therefore be repackaged to reap its
benefits.
The second is the Investment
Promotion and Enterprise Development (IPED) unit that provides technical
support to the private sector in the preparation of feasibility reports and
business plans and the organisation of various investment events and trade
fairs among other laudable functions, for small and medium scale enterprises.
Next, is the Communication and
Information Management (CIM) unit, with the main objective of making ICT
education accessible to private sector operators, students and the youth in
general and public institutions, eager to be trained but lack access to
computers.
There is also the Agriculture and
Natural Resources Development, (ANARD) which builds the capacity of local
farmers in non-traditional farming, bio-diversity management and widening the
income generating base of CEDECOM through cultivation of oil palm, organic
sugarloaf, among others.
The last but not the least
important is the Administration and Human Resource Development (AHRD) which
strengthens the human resource, institutional and fiscal management capacity of
the Commission.
It is clear that CEDECOM has what
it takes to be the sole secretariat for the 1D1F policy in the region. It has
the requisite human resource to facilitate the successful implementation of the
programme and this would help cut the cost of hiring new hands and save huge
amounts for other developmental projects.
Let the authorities consider this
option and give the Commission the leverage to perform and it would not be
disappointed because it already has in place the framework that could
facilitate the success of the 1D1F to make the region a preferred choice for
investors.
It is against this backdrop that
a stakeholders’ investment conference slated for early next year to herald a
grand investment forum in April 2019 is being planned to showcase the area’s
potentials to prospective investors.
It would be held under the
auspices of the Regional Coordinating Council and CDEDECOM with support from
the MMDAs and other stakeholders including the Coconut Grove Hotel.
The Central Region in this
regard, is calling on all its partners and the business community to support it
to exhibit its investment resources to the world to efficiently enhance the
implementation of the 1D1F policy to propel it out of the quagmire of poverty
and despondency, into one of prosperity and wealth.
The Central Region is poised to
be a model region of the 1D1F policy for the rest of the country to emulate and
it could not fail to achieve this feat.
GNA
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