By Ernestina Adzo Dika, GNA
Tema, Feb. 16, GNA-The Greater Accra Regional Youth Organiser of the Convention People’s Party (CPP), Mr Eric Jerry Aidoo, has noted that, despite the huge salt production potential of the country’s coastal belt, the renewable resource remains highly untapped.
He said output levels were less than 10 per cent of its potential, and therefore called for revamping of the salt industry to transform the plight of the people-poverty in mix of abundance.
Mr Aidoo who is an entrepreneur told the Ghana News Agency at Tema in an interview that the indigenes of coastal communities’ wallow in poverty amidst high levels of unemployment and that what the salt industry needed was, investment, and technological application to local production.
The CPP Youth Organizer recommended a mixture of strategies to rejuvenate the sector to achieve optimum and harness the benefit of salt deposits as this would help diversify the export markets of Ghana.
The salt industry would also give impetus to the nation’s industrialization drive towards achieving upper-middle income country status in the short-to-medium-term.
Mr Addo said Ghana had the best salt producing potential in the West African Sub-region as studies show that the country held about 60 per cent of salt production.
He said globally, the salt market was witnessing a steady growth in terms of consumption.
He noted that the chemical sector was one of the major end-users of industrial salt, where it is primarily used in the production of Chlor-alkali (chlorine and caustic soda) and synthetic soda ash.
Mr Aidoo, who is also the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Tema City Football Club, said the growing demand for products such as caustic soda and soda ash were driving the growth of Chlor-alkali.
He therefore concluded that the salt industries could create over 80,000 jobs alone in coastal areas and contribute one billion dollars to the economy annually.
