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A retired Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for Security Studies in South Africa, Colonel Festus Aboagye, says though the decision by the Military High Command to go into the manufacturing industry is laudable, the Ghana Armed Forces (GAF) does not have the expertise to undertake a business venture. Defence Minister Lt. Gen. Joseph Henry Smith announced on Friday that the GAF intends to pursue aggressive private business by venturing into the manufacturing sector. He was speaking in Kumasi at the handing over of the defunct Kumasi Shoe factory to the military under a partnership deal with a Czech Company, Knights. According to him, the Military has established a holding company �Defence Industries Holding Company Limited� (DIHOC) for the purposes of running certain businesses in the country, adding that a 50-million-dollar credit facility had been secured to get the shoe factory running once again. Speaking to newsmen in an interview, Col. Aboagye (rtd) said: �It�s a very complex issue; and it is too short for any objective analysis of what the Armed Forces is up to... I could say it�s a good idea but on the other hand, it can be fraught with difficulties�The issue of production of shoes has gone very scientific. So in some of the developed economies, they do not just go out anywhere and buy boots. You consider the issue of materials, how they are put together and how comfortable they are, how user friendly they are and all that. I don�t think the Ghana Armed Forces (GAF) as it stands now, has any expertise�so there are a lot of questions that have to be asked but we need to give them the benefit of the doubt,� he said. According to him, they (GAF) needs to find out if there is a ready market for the shoes and whether it will be patronized. He indicated that the fact that military has embarked on other business enterprises in other countries especially in 1960 and in 1977, does not mean that it will be successful in Ghana. As a result, he advised GAF to �do their homework well so as to ensure that the business becomes a success�. He hoped that the diversion will not create any vacuum in their core duty of protecting the country and defending it at all times. In a related development, Director of Public Affairs at the Military High Command, Col. M'Bawine Atintande, has stated emphatically that the core functions of the Ghana Armed Forces will not be compromised in anyway by the planned takeover of the Kumasi Shoe factory. According to him, the military will adequately execute its core responsibility of defending the country. He said not even the managing of the just acquired Kumasi Shoe factory can come between their core responsibilities of safeguarding the lives of the citizenry.