President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has launched the Infrastructure for Poverty and Eradication Programme (IPEP) at a ceremony at Ejura in the Ashanti Region to support the government's priority Initiatives for sustainable socio-economic development .
These include the "One District, One Factory", "One Village, One Dam" , "Agricultural Infrastructure" , " Water for All" and " Sanitation" Programmes.
Under the IPEP, the government would offer to each of the consistuencies an amount of US $ 1 million annually to be invested in infrastructure development for the successful implementation of those initiatives.
President Nana Akufo-Addo said in order to ensure the smooth advancement of the programme, the government, would establish three development authorities - The Northern Development Authority, the Middle Belt Development Authority and the Coastal development Authority to oversee its implementation.
The private sector, he said, would be involved in the execution of the IPEP, therefore, the implementing authorities would liaise with them to ensure successful rollout of the programme.
"Our vision for the next four years is to modernise agriculture, improve production efficiency, achieve food security and ensure all year round income for farmers" , he noted. President Nana Akufo-Addo, added that the government's policies and intervention were aimed at assisting farmers and fisher folks to make meaningful living as part of their efforts to alleviate poverty among the people.
"Our reforms will encompass the full agricultural value change and also create additional businesses and job opportunities in the areas of storage, transport, processing, packaging and marketing of agricultural produce", he stated.
President Nana Akufo-Addo indicated that government had stepped up efforts to construct a thousand metric tonne capacity warehouse in each district across the country.
The aim is to reduce to the barest minimum, post-harvest losses, which had over the years been the bane of increased agricultural productivity.
The President indicated that the warehouses were critical to boosting Ghana's capacity in food production and export