The factory, which is into the production and distribution of tiles, is estimated to have cost $77.26 million to establish and will operate at a designed production capacity of 14.4 million square meters per year with annual sales projected to be $82.8 million.

Speaking before the commissioning, President Akufo-Addo praised the investors for putting up the factory.

“I congratulate the chairperson, board, management and directors of Sunda International for the decision to establish the factory here in Shama. It will not only reduce our country’s ceramic tiles import bill but will also create employment for the young men and women resident here,” the President said.

The President praised the company for sourcing all its raw materials locally and providing employment for the teeming youth in the area.

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According to the President, it is possible to “move Africa beyond aid” given the numerous natural resources the continent has at its disposal.

[contextly_sidebar id=”1JkZmgg3S8Wf7uWjyvmoUt4lmltf3waw”]Speaking at an event organised by the Royal Africa Society, Facebook and the Ghana 60 Years on Committee, on the theme “Africa Beyond Aid” on Tuesday, November 21, 2017, President Akufo-Addo said that it was imperative for the countries on the continent like Ghana, to make the most of the “riches” they had been endowed with in order to gradually wean themselves off aid.

“We no longer want to offer the justification for those who want to be rude and abusive about Africa and her people. It is time to build our economies that are not dependent on charity and handouts… We have learnt from long and bitter experience that, no matter how generous the charity, we would, and, indeed, we have remained poor,” he said.

“We can, and we should be able to build a Ghana which looks to the use of her own resources and their proper management as the way to engineer social and economic growth in our country.”

Speaking at an earlier event, the President had spoken of the importance of moving African economies from ones dependent on the export of raw materials to industry-rich ones.

“We are on the path to creating wealth and improving the lives of our people. We’re determined to do that by transforming the structure of our economy. The neo-colonial economy, based on the production and export of raw materials, cannot form the basis of a new era of prosperity for our people,” he said.

The President reiterated this point on Tuesday, referencing Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire,  who despite producing most of the world’s cocoa output, receive less than 10% of the total windfall.

He attributed this largely to a failure to consolidate their influence over the commodity by processing it for export, and instead exporting it in its raw form.

“If we simply ground and sold the cocoa in paste form, instead of selling the cocoa beans, we double our earnings. In much the same way as we would double our earnings from gold, if we sold it refined, than in its raw state. We are determined to process these products,” he said.

Nana Addo added that, if “we, in Africa, must manage our resources well, to generate wealth for our populations.”

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By: Edwin Kwakofi/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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According to the President, although peaceful changes in government and the people’s representatives were a sign of the country’s strong democratic prospects, it was more imperative that all the citizens are given equal opportunities to succeed.

[contextly_sidebar id=”l2CjzUyAK0o28ylOxBkqK0jVrYeuVLJB”]“The democracy that we seek to build does not end in casting votes and electing a president and a Member of Parliament once every four years. We seek to build a prosperous nation with equal opportunities where all citizens feel they have a stake,” he said.

“Never again should the Ghanaian citizen feel that he has to join the desperadoes that cross the Sahara and drown in the Mediterranean Sea because their own country holds no promise or hope.”

Nana Addo made these comments when he delivered a speech on “Democracy and Development” at the Cambridge Union Society of the University of Cambridge, as part of his 3-day visit to the United Kingdom.

Industrialisation is the answer

The New Patriotic Party (NPP) administration under Nana Akufo-Addo has consistently spoken of the need for Ghana to move from an economy dependent on revenue generated from the export of raw materials to an industrialized one.

As part of efforts to ensure the move towards industrialization, the government has initiated the one-district, one-factory programme to support local businesses across the country to thrive.

And according to the President, Ghana is well on its way to making this happen with the policies it has initiated.

“We are on the path to creating wealth and improving the lives of our people. We’re determined to do that by transforming the structure of our economy. The neo-colonial economy, based on the production and export of raw materials, cannot form the basis of a new era of prosperity for our people,” he said.

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By: Edwin Kwakofi/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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