The facility would serve farmers in the area and ensure that the problem of post-harvest losses are reduced or eliminated completely.

Inset, Mr Baafi (third from right) being assisted by other dignitaries to cut the tape to inaugurate the factory

On the day, the team also inaugurated a regional technol­ogy transfer centre at Dormaa Ahenkro. The facility is expected to produce all kinds of machinery t to support government’s desire to create small scale enterprises in the country.

The Nkrankwanta rice pro­cessing factory under the 1 D 1 F common user facility and built at the cost of GH¢7.243 million has the state-of-the-art rice process­ing equipment with the capacity to produce 1.5 to 2.8 tonnes of processed rice per hour.

The processing plant installed at the factory include milling and packaging machines, with a stand­by generator and a mechanised borehole to supply the factory with water.

The Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry, Michael Okyere Baafi, at the inauguration said the 1D1F programme was a phenom­enal policy by the government to boost the industrialisation agenda, to address the unemployment issues in the country.

According to him a total of 296 factories had been created under the one district one factory policy which were at various stages of

 completion.

The deputy minister said the Nkrankwanta rice processing factory which would create 150 direct jobs and several indirect jobs, would have farmers in the area owning the facility with 70 per cent shares, adding that tra­ditional authorities, assembly and  the Ministry of Trade would have 10 per cent shares respectively.

He charged a nine-member board which he inaugurated yester­day to ensure proper maintenance of the facility.

The Director of the Rural Enter­prises Programme (REP), Akwasi Atta-Antwi, said the programme had played a vital role in the establishment of a decentralised institutional framework to support the development of micro and small enterprises in rural areas of Ghana.

According to him a key achieve­ment of rural enterprises and its predecessor, Rural Enterprises project phase 1 and 2 had been the establishment of rural technology facilities through a collaboration with District Assemblies and the GRATIS foundation.

The facilities, he noted had served as magnets for industrial activity, promoting technology dissemination and transfer to the informal sector.

Mr Atta-Antwi said the 1D 1 F user facility was an agro-industrial factory set up by the Rural Enter­prises under the Ministry of Trade and Industry, to enhance the value addition of primary agricultural commodities.

The Dormaa Ahenkro Technol­ogy Solution Centre is a technical workshop equipped with metal working machines for the develop­ment and promotion of appropri­ate technology to micro, small and medium scale enterprises, spare parts production and technical training.