Independent presidential aspirant and leader of the New Force, Nana Kwame Bediako, popularly known as Cheddar, has emphasized his quest to establish food processing plants in every region of Ghana to boost agricultural activities, cut post-harvest losses and create jobs.
He says prioritizing manufacturing in the country will reduce the quest of traders to travel to countries like China, America or Turkey to bring in goods.
Speaking in an interview on Luv Fm as part of his listening tour in the Ashanti region, Mr Bediako observed the need to make every region of the country economically active by harnessing the requisite human and natural resources to drive prosperity.
“Out of 16 regions that we have in this country, it’s only one that is active and it’s just Accra. The rest is non-active and supposedly the rest are the ones with the resources; they have the mineral resources; they have the human resources and it’s not being used. But Accra that is supposed to be the active one doesn’t have one find of mineral, there is no gold, there is no bauxite, there is no mining, there is nothing.”
This is informing his quest to establish factories in each region, emphasizing that his listening tour has a component of research to ascertain the needs, behaviour and endowments of people and places.
“Before we even took a step, we studied all the minerals in the country and we realized that we have attributable reserves of over 4.7trillion untouched. We are not broke, we’re very rich but we just have bad leaders who are only interested in their pockets,” said Mr. Bediako.
The New Force leader described Ashanti region as being resourceful in natural resources but lacking plants to create jobs.
“The resources are here in the Ashanti region… all of these places need plants, energy; you need power stations to at least give industrial tariffs,” he said.
According to Cheddar, he cannot sit aloof without taking action to redirect the path of Ghana.
“I have held leadership positions right from school, so I have experience. I know how to make money and create wealth. I have what it takes to be president… I respect and value people. I will not steal from them or disrespect them,” he said.
