Dormaa Ahenkro (B/A), Aug 29, GNA - The Dormaa Ahenkro Distillers and Retailers Union has called for the lifting of the district assembly's seven-year ban on the distillation of the local gin, akpeteshie, in the district during the dry season. Members of the union said at a forum at Dormaa Ahenkro that they would employ all means to dialogue with relevant local and national bodies for a change in the byelaw.

They said the ban had not only threatened their businesses with collapse but was also a gross violation of their right to work as provided in the 1992 constitution.

The forum organized by Network for Advocacy and Development Alternatives (NADA), an advocacy-oriented NGO and sponsored by Business Sector Advocacy (BUSAC), was under the theme "Reviewing total ban on distilling is key to our survival".

It sought to garner cooperation and support from members of the union towards the joint BUSAC-NADA advocacy initiative to deliver them from the "unpopular ban".

Under the initiative an action plan would be pursued with traditional authorities, the district assembly the ministries of Local Government and Justice to get them to understand the negative effects of the ban on the distillers, retailers and their dependants and the need to review it. The union conceded members' activities had a fire element but said they were prepared to operate as a commercial group with oversight supervision by the fire volunteer squads. Mr. Iddrisu Owiredu, executive director of NADA, said poverty reduction strategies in rural areas had failed because of over-concentration on the public sector to the detriment of the private sector. He said past interventions also employed "crisis mode of implementation" where problems were allowed to crop up and degenerate for donors and philanthropists to come in to assist victims. Mr. Wiredu said the BUSAC Fund, unlike its predecessors, sought to tackle the problem of poverty from the grassroots to satisfy the component of advocacy aimed at effecting changes for an improved standard of living. Mr. Martin Yaw Acheampong, union secretary, said the assembly's ban on distilling in the district between November and March "makes the union to lose a minimum of 60 million cedis each season".