Tema, June 28, GNA - The Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development on Monday took delivery of equipment for extracting oil for five district assemblies to be distributed to rural farming groups to help boost rural economy.

The equipment known as the TinyTech Oil Mills, valued at 500 million cedis was manufactured by the Foundries and Agriculture Machinery (Ghana) Limited (FAMGL) at Tema and will be used to extract oils from sunflower seeds, groundnuts, palm fruits/nuts, Soya beans and cotton seeds.

The beneficiary districts are Sunyani, Offinso, Bongo, Nkoranza and West Gonja.

Mr Kwadwo Adjei-Darko called on the youth to take advantage of the existing farming equipment to go into agriculture to promote rural development, self-employment and job creation to minimize rural-urban urban drift, with its attendant problems.

He urged the district assemblies to find pragmatic ways of reducing poverty among the people at the grassroots saying, "the practice where small monies are distributed to a large number of people as a means of fighting poverty must give way to job creation policies".

The Minister noted that often, people are not given the corresponding training programmes to manage the monies in a prudent manner, which has led to the non-sustainability of the scheme, because they do not repay the monies taken.

He called on the district assemblies to channel part of the poverty alleviation funds into assisting entrepreneurs to set up cottage industries that have the potential of creating jobs in the communities and reducing poverty.

He asked the beneficiary districts to enter into partnership with the private sector to set up efficient management teams, which would not be under the direct control of the district assembly.

Mr Shewak Ram Mirpuri, Managing Director of the FAMGL expressed the company's preparedness to install and train the users how to operate and maintain the equipment. 28 June 04