The project, estimated at GH¢2.4 million, is an initiative of the Kente Festival (Agbamevorza) Planning Committee aimed at developing the kente industry in the area.

About 2,000 kente weavers are expected to benefit from the project.

The Volta Regional Minister, Dr Archibald Yao Letsa, who performed the sod-cutting ceremony, commended the people and said the project touched on the core of the government’s policy of developing indigenous industries as a tool for wealth creation and development.

Government policy

He said it was also in tune with government’s policy of one district, one factory to resource communities and empower them to play a lead role in the industrialisation of the nation.

Dr Letsa said that despite the fact that Agotime had the largest concentration of Kente weavers in the country; the product had been a hidden treasure that had enormous untapped potential for job creation and higher income for the people.

He said the kente village was part of the effort by the people to reorganise the industry by reducing the unit cost of production to the barest minimum to make the industry competitive and export-oriented.

Called for change

He called for a change in low level business ethics, stressing that the time had come for a paradigm shift and the need for bold initiatives with the assurance that the government was prepared to build the capacity of people and develop their human capital through its various innovative policies so that people could take advantage of emerging industrial opportunities.

“To ensure a brighter future for the younger generation, it is important that we re-engineer our traditional institutions, inject a sense of discipline into our way of life and put into practice the belief that there is dignity in labour. We possess the power to create wealth if we transform and harness the resources we have,” he said.

The Chairman of the Kente Festival Planning Committee, Mr Eddie Akotey, said kente was regarded as one of the cloths that identified Ghanaians in all spheres of life.

In a welcome address, the Konor of Agotime, Nene Nuer Keteku III, said the kente industry in Agotime had opened the area for tourism investment and had made it a tourism destination of choice.