The Vice President and flagbearer of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, has promised to construct a tomato processing factory at Akomadan in the Offinso North constituency of the Ashanti Region, under his presidency. 

The plan forms part of his government’s industrialisation agenda to create jobs for the teeming youth in the country. 

Dr Bawumia made the pledge during a stakeholders’ durbar at Akomadan in the Offinso North constituency of the Ashanti Region, on Tuesday. 

On agriculture modernisation, the NPP Flagbearer said his administration would set up District Agriculture Mechanisation Centres in agricultural districts to provide equipment such as tractors, harvesters and ploughing machines to farmers to expand their farms. 

In line with his commitment to ensuring sustainable mining, Dr Bawumia said, the Ghana Geological Survey Authority (GGSA) would be resourced to conduct detailed geological investigations in designated areas across the country.  

That, he said, would aid the GGSA to determine mineralised areas of gold deposits in order to prevent speculative mining practices, which destroy the landscapes and pollution of the water bodies. 

The initiative is a demonstration of the NPP Flagbearer’s resolve to tackle illegal mining and enhance the regulation of small-scale mining in the country. 

Dr Bawumia also announced plans to develop the Western and Eastern railway lines to facilitate easy transportation of mineral resources and other goods and services. 

For instance, Dr Bawumia said, his administration would expand the Tema rail lines to Kumasi and to the Northern Region, while railway lines in Awaso in the Western Region would be expanded to Kumasi for transportation of goods and services. 

Dr Bawumia appealed to the electorate to vote for him to become the next president of Ghana and all the NPP parliamentary candidates across the country to enable them to continue the transformative agenda of the NPP government.