Business News of Monday, 18 November 2013

Source: GNA

Gov’t to establish Keta Basin Development Authority

Government would soon come out with the necessary legislations to establish the Keta Basin Development Authority, President John Dramani Mahama has announced. The move is to ensure that farmers make use of the arable land for the production and processing of vegetables along the coastal areas of the Volta Region.

President Mahama announced this when he addressed a durbar of chiefs of the Anlo state at Anloga. The President also inspected the sea defence projects along the Dzita-Atorkor Anyanui road as part of his two-day official visit to the Region.

He said apart from creating jobs for the people, the establishment of the Authority would also diversify the economy that had over the years relied solely on cocoa and gold for foreign exchange.

President Mahama appealed to chiefs and landlords at the area to relax their stance on land litigation, to encourage and attract investors into the Keta Basin Development project.

'No area in our part of the world can survive without investors from other areas and it is we that can make the place attractive to them by willingly releasing land for such development projects,' the President added.

On the economy, President Mahama admitted that his administration is the most hard-hit in the history of Ghanaian leadership adding: “My government has had no honeymoon,” a situation he described as “baptism of fire”.

He however noted that government had put in place numerous measures to reform the economy and block all revenue loopholes.

The President announced that government is also working around the clock to unveil a fund that would turn around the infrastructural deficits the country had recorded over the years.

Togbe Sri III, Awoamefia, of the Anlo State commended government for undertaking numerous development projects to make the people comfortable over the years, with particular emphasis on the number of sea defence projects. He appealed to government to step up programmes on potable water, electricity and agriculture to make the people self-reliant.