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Former Minister of Trade, Industry and Presidential Special Initiatives, Alan Kwadwo Kyerematen, has assured people of the Brong Ahafo region that his party will revive the oil palm industry which has collapsed under the John Mahama led-National Democratic Congress government.
Addressing Muslim clerics and chiefs of settler communities in Derma in the Tano South constituency whilst accompanying Nana Akufo-Addo on a visit to the constituency, Mr Kyerematen noted that the NPP, under President John Agyekum Kufuor, had a vision of making oil palm a cash crop and major foreign exchange earner for the country.
To this end, 11,000 acres of oil palm were cultivated in four communities in the Tano South constituency – Derma, Ankaase, Ada and Sesekpo.
The people of Derma are also engaged in the cultivation of tomatoes.
Alan Kyerematen explained that under the NPP government, the Pwalugu tomato factory was rehabilitated and equipped with modern state-of-the-art equipment for the processing of tomatoes.
“This factory, located in the North, has collapsed under John Mahama. His government did not pay attention to this factory which has the capacity of processing 25 truckloads of tomatoes every day. If the NPP had continued in office, the processing of tomatoes alone would have also made tomato farmers rich,” he added.
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Measure of performance not in projects
Touching on the NDC’s touting of its so-called projects as an “election winner,” Alan Kyerematen stressed that “in spite of their so-called unprecedented projects, the people of Ghana are suffering. There is suffering everywhere because they have mismanaged the Ghanaian economy.”
According to him, every government from independence till now has projects to its name, and therefore the only measure of performance of any government should be the people’s living conditions.
With Ghana’s GDP growth rate for 2015 hovering at some four percent as opposed to a growth rate of 8.4 percent at the time the NPP left office, this means we are retrogressing as a nation,” Alan Kyerematen said.
He continued, “If someone who is giving you a growth rate of four percent tells you to vote for him again, then it means you are voting to retrogress.”
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