Wa, May 29, GNA - Poverty eradication still poses the greatest challenge to the people Upper West, Dr Boye Bandie of the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC) said on Thursday. He said the promotion of agro industries was one of the surest way of reducing the incidence of poverty but that must be encourage by Government and its development partners to give hope for the people. Dr Bandie was speaking on the topic: "Investment opportunities in the Upper West Region - A case for agro-based industries" at an investment forum held in Wa to mark the silver jubilee celebration of the creation of the Region from the then Upper Region in 1983. He said the Ghana Living Statistics Survey (GLSS) indicated that, as much as 88 per cent of households in the region earned below the lower poverty line of 70 Ghana cedis and were considered as poor, thereby, making the Region the poorest in the country. He said between 1999 and 2006, the incidence of poverty declined in all regions except the Upper West and Greater Accra Regions. The highest poverty incidence increased from 84 per cent in 1999 to 88 percent in 2006.

The trend in the incidence of poverty across regions indicated spatial inequity across the region of Ghana with Upper West, Upper East and Northern Regions being the poorest. Dr Bandie said unemployment was also a major challenge. The Upper West Region recorded the highest percentage increase in unemployment between 1984 and 2000, from 0.4 per cent in 1984 to the current 15.0 per cent

"Job creation has not kept pace with population growth, resulting in unemployment among other things," he said. Dr Bandie said a direct consequence of regional poverty and unemployment was the out-migration of the citizens of the Upper West Region to other regions in search of alternative sources of livelihoods.

Dr Bandie said the 2,000 Population and Housing Census revealed that, as many as 168,434 people, about one-third of the current regional population from the major tribes of the Region, namely, Dagarti, Waala and Sissala resided in Brong Ahafo Region alone.

Other Regions are: Northern 106,416, Ashanti 85,529 and Greater Accra 39,454 people in that order.

Dr Bandie noted that even though manufacturing activity had been found to be one of the highest employment generation the region had not had the opportunity to attract any investments for that purpose. He said of the 1,107 businesses registered by the Ghana Investment Promotion Council (GIPC) between January 2001 and December 2006, close one per cent was located in the Region with the Greater Accra having as many as 922 manufacturing activities, representing 83.3 per cent. Dr Bandie said, however, repeated that despite these negative indicators, the economic growth in the Region could best be promoted partly through the development of agri-business adding the Upper West ranked second in millet, sorghum and cowpea production. On industrial crops, Dr Bandie said the Region has a competitive advantage in cotton production and also a leading producer of sheanuts, a non-traditional export commodity w ith a substantial potential to generate industrial activity.

The Region also has a huge potential in fruits and vegetables production but these had been neglected. Dr Bandie said the extraction of oil from soya beans and cotton seed and the conversion of the residual produce to animal feed in the form of soya-cake provided another area for manufacturing activity in the region.

He said Jetropha and Moringa plants were abound in the Region that could be processed for bio-diesel and medicinal purposes. The implementation of Presidential Special Initiatives in cotton, cashew, sorghum and guinea fowl must trigger government's interest to develop the Region.

Dr Bandie called on the inhabitants of the area to contribute their quota to address the present shortcomings. "We need to adopt a 'can do' attitude to transform the Region into an industrial giant and reduce poverty and unemployment among our people", he said.