Accra, Sept. 4, GNA – The Kwahu South District Assembly has cultivated 500,000 coffee seedlings to support government’s Planting for Export and Rural Development (PERD) programme in the district.
The seedlings would be distributed to coffee farmers free to boast coffee production in the district.
Speaking at a town hall meeting organized in collaboration with the District Information Services Department at Mpraeso, Mr Emmanuel Atta Ofori, the District Chief Executive, said the assembly has engaged over 20 farmers at the coffee nursery to help in caring for the seedlings.
He said the Assembly decided to venture into coffee cultivation because the district is known to be the hub of quality coffee production in the country.
To support government’s policies in creating employment for the youth in agriculture and social services, the assembly, Mr Atta-Ofori said has engaged over 1,000 youths through the Nations Builders Corps (NABCO), Youth Employment Agency (YEA) and the Youth in Agriculture programs.
He said the District’s Business Advisory Centre (BAC) has also offered free trainings for about 200 artisans at Atibie, Mpraeso, Bepong, Kwahu Praso and its environs.
Among the training offered were beading, soap making, apprenticeship in electrical and auto mechanics, tailoring and dressmaking.
Mr Atta-Ofori said the beneficiaries of the skill training were given start- up kits to enable them start their businesses on their own to help reduce unemployment in the area.
He said the assembly has made a head way in ensuring good sanitation practices in the district by providing a toilet facility for the people of Atibie and constructing mechanized boreholes at Atuobikrom, Bepong and Kwahu Praso.
The assembly, he said, has also constructed and renovated about five schools in the district and they are the Mpraeso and Atibie D/A Basic School, Kwarfour D/A Primary, Bepong SHS and the Asakraka D/A JHS and provided teachers’ quarters at Nkyenenkyene to ease the stress teachers undergo when posted to the area.
He said all access roads in the district would soon be rehabilitated.
Mr Atta- Ofori appealed to investors to establish factories and companies in the district to support the government’s One District One Factory (1D1F) policy.
Participants were given opportunity to ask questions of which appropriate answers were given.
Meanwhile, the Victory Ambassadors, a non- governmental youth organization in the district, has presented a citation to the Honourable DCE for his hard work and support in ensuring the development in the area.
