Residents in Jato Suhum in the Eastern Region have called on the Nana Addo-led government to establish a local gin manufacturing factory in the area to boost the local distilling business.
The residents explained that during the campaign ahead of election 2016, the then presidential candidate of the NPP promised to establish a factory in the community as part of its One District; One Factory policy.
The Local Chairman of Jato Corporative Distillers Society, Reuben Naduku, at a press conference on Thursday (September 8, 2017) said they have made available about 10 to 15 acres of litigation free land to the government to build the factory in the community.
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“In 2016 President Akufo Addo came here to promise us that the one -district -one factory for the Municipality will be established in this community, as a result, all of us voted for him, we noticed that he has started cutting sod for the one -district -one factory project in some parts of the country so we have also made available about 10 to 15 acre land here for the President to facilitate the project here.”
“Now our work is collapsing due to lack of resources, currently as we speak there are some people who import industrial alcohol from abroad and selling them as Akpeteshie to the public which doesn’t contribute anything to the economy of Ghana but for ours, we use local resources in the country to produce the gin which creates employment, we also pay several revenues to government .So we are begging the President to stop the importation of ethanol from abroad since it is collapsing our business,” he added.
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According to the group, the increase in importation of industrial alcohol by manufacturing companies for the production of alcoholic beverages has caused massive unemployment in the area.
Akpeteshie is brewed from Palm tree. It is an ancient gin with a long history of consumption due to several reasons including affordability.