President Promises To Support Indigenous Industries

President John Dramani Mahama at weekend reiterated government's commitment to support indigenous manufacturing companies to blossom to maturity. He said the move is to help in the reduction of importation of such goods and to create many job opportunities for the teeming youth of the country. President Mahama said this when he paid a maiden visit to the Dignity-DTRT, a garment factory in Accra, to acquaint himself with their operations and capacity levels. The visit is also to actualise the promise he made in his State of the Nation's address to visit indigenous Ghanaian industries to find out areas of support and cooperation. Dignity-DTRT, which is a joint venture, currently manufactures garments for the United States of America market, with a workforce of 500 people that is expected to increase to 1,000 workers by the close of 2015. President Mahama said the Government had already given financial support for the Pharmaceutical Companies to reduce the importation of drugs and would accord the same support to other indigenous companies that would show glimpses of hope for the country. He said the Government would also resuscitate the cotton industry to ensure that most of the lint was processed here in line with government's determination to reduce the exportation of primary goods to other countries. President Mahama called on the manufacturing industries to step up their production to meet international standards for exports as most foreign companies in other continents were now moving into Africa because of the saturation there. Madam Salma Salifu, Managing Director of the Company, gave the assurance that they would work hard to increase their output to attract more contracts from other countries. She said they had a target of increasing their workforce to 5,000 by the close of 2016 and called for governmental intervention to survive in the face stiff competition from importers. Mr Dela Gumado, Chief Finance Officer of the Company, appealed to the government to avail the Export Development Agricultural Investment fund loans to them to step up their production and to stabilise the economy of the factory. He also appealed to the Government to provide them with the COVET grants to be able to train more Ghanaian youth in garment production.