The Council, has also encouraged all Chiefs in the area to prioritise the  cultivation of pineapples, provide free lands to investors, collaborate effectively with stakeholders and enthusiastically encourage their subjects to venture into pineapple cultivation as a viable means of livelihood.

"I have given you all (Chiefs) one month to start cultivating pineapples. Those of you who go against this directive will be banned from attending Council meeting. This is Ekumfi and we won't allow the factory to collapse as it happened in some jurisdictions because it is built for us."

Odeefo Akyin XII, Omanhen of Ekumfi Traditional Area, made the remarks after a familiarisation tour of his large acres of pineapple farm by Mrs. Gifty Ohene-Konadu, the National Coordinator of the One-District-One-Factory (1D1F) Project site at Ekumfi Nanaben.

She was accompanied by Messrs Francis Ato Cudjoe, Member of Parliament (MP) for Ekumfi, Bright Bernard Grant, and District Chief Executive (DCE) among other officials who were taken through the various processes of production - sorting, filtration and packaging.

Funded by the Exim Bank Ghana Limited, the Ekumfi Fruits Factory is the first factory inaugurated by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akuffo-Addo under the "One District, One Factory" (IDIF) industrialisation drive in 2017.

According to Odeefo Akyin XII, his directive was geared towards giving strong boost to pineapple cultivation in the area to significantly ease the challenge of inadequate and unreliable supply of raw materials often associated with new factories in the country.

That, according to him was the way to sustain the factory, create employment and effectively bring development and investments to the area to improve their livelihoods.

The Omanhen stated that the sheer commitment of the Council,  quality human resource, and arable lands amidst excellent climatic conditions placed the factory ahead of competitors to produce at low cost to feed the world.

He applauded President Nana Akuffo-Addo for his unflinching determination to accelerate development through industrialisation as a means of creating wealth to reduce poverty.

Mr Grant, described the intervention as timely to reduce the rising unemployment rate - forcing the youth to migrate into urban communities in search of non-existent jobs.

Also, he noted, the Assembly, was effectively re-strategising its plans, policies and programmes to attract and retain more investments to significantly rake in the needed revenue to support development projects.

On her part, Mrs. Ohene-Konadu, after a tour of the facility, announced that the factory was ready for commissioning to begin commercial production and processing of fruits.

She said the company would not only process pineapple juice, but go into mix fruits such as passion fruits, citrus and ginger to augment production varieties and thanked the President and the Chief for the initiative.