The Ministry of Trade and Industry has inaugurated two Rural Technology Facilities (RTFs) in the Brong Ahafo Region to offer technical training to the youth leading to employment creation and income generation. The RTFs would also promote and disseminate appropriate technology to support the development of micro and small businesses in the beneficiary districts. An RTF is a technical workshop with appropriate equipment for metal machining/automobile repair; and welding/fabrication. The two workshops located at Goaso in the Asunafo North Municipality and Bechem in the Tano South District are the thirteenth and fourteenth respectively to be commissioned out of eighteen being established under phase two of the Rural Enterprises Project since 2003; but the sixteenth and seventeenth of twenty-one since 1995 including phase one of the Project. The total cost of equipment and workshop buildings for the two RTFs is GH¢965,700. Rural Technology Facilities (RTFs) are the district level implementing units of the Technology Promotion and Support to Apprentice Training component of the Rural Enterprises Project. They are established by the Rural Enterprises Project with funding from the Government of Ghana, International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the African Development Bank (AfDB). The main source of funding for the RTFs is the AfDB which covers the workshop and the equipment. IFAD provides a 4x4 pick-up vehicle. The RTFs are established under a tripartite arrangement between the Project, beneficiary District Assembly and the GRATIS Foundation. GRATIS provides two key staff to manage the facility. Each RTF would also serve at least two adjoining Districts of the host districts. Therefore the Asunafo North RTF would the Asutifi South and Asunafo South districts while the Tano South RTF would serve the Tano North, Ahafo Ano North and Ahafo Ano South Districts. The functions to be performed by the RTF include training of master-craftpersons, apprentices and students from technical institutions on attachment; demonstration of new technologies; and manufacture equipment/machines especially for agro-processors to support the operations of micro and small scale enterprises (MSEs). The equipment to be manufactured by the RTF would include equipment for cassava processing, palm oil processing, shea butter processing, multi-crop threshers, shellers, soap cutting machines, etc. The facility will also offer technological support services like repairs and maintenance various equipment; fabrication of farm implements; and forging and manufacturing of spare parts. The Facility is also expected provide information and referral services including directing artisans to other sources of technical support services beyond its scope. The Role of the Tano South and Asunafo North District Assemblies in the Establishment of each RTF. The two district assemblies have made major contributions to establishment of each RTF. Each district assembly provided the land; extended utilities (water, electricity, telephone); appointed and pays salaries of 4 staff; and is responsible for the day to day supervision, monitoring and direction to RTF operations. The Tano South RTF and the Creation of the Tano South Light Industrial Zone The Tano South RTF is situated on 12.2 hectares of land off the Kumasi - Sunyani main road, designated by the District Assembly for a Light Industrial Zone. About 120 small and micro enterprises made of fitters, metal workers, wood workers as well as agro-processors are expected to be accommodated at the site. Currently, twenty five (25) enterprises have relocated to the site while others are putting up their structures. Zoom Lion Ghana Ltd. has already constructed a workshop for servicing refuse trucks. The site was constructed by the District Assembly in 2008 with support from the German International Cooperation (GIZ). GIZ funded the complete installation of electricity network to cover the site, extension of water supply and construction of stand pipe and KVIP. GIZ also supported funding for the access road to the site. The District Assembly cleared the site, graded the access road, and constructed culverts by the link road. The RTF is expected to serve as a pull factor for all artisans especially in Bechem, the district capital, to move to zone. This is because of the enormous benefits the RTF is expected to bring to the artisans through its activities. In an address at the inauguration of the RTFs, the Minister of Trade and Industry, Ms Hannah Tetteh, stressed that the government was committed to enhancing and building a strong and vibrant rural economy with the primary objective of addressing the problem of unemployment, reducing poverty and rural-urban migration. She said in all those interventions, the REP, which seeks to reduce poverty by promoting a competitive SME sector, has a significant role to play. Ms Tetteh explained that the REP model of providing integrated services for rural enterprises through the establishment of Business Advisory Centres (BACs) and RTFs in the districts to work closely with the assemblies, was unique and had a huge potential to transform rural economies. The minister noted that the model, which further supported the integration of the project’s institutional delivery mechanism into the assembly system, was in line with the decentralisation policy of the government. Ms Tetteh pointed out that as part of the decentralisation process, a Department of Trade, Industry and Tourism was to be established in all districts to mainstream the BACs and the RTFs into the assembly system. The Co-ordinator of the REP, Mr Kwasi Atta-Antwi, explained that although the RTFs were situated in Goaso and Bechem, it was expected that they would extend their operations into the Asutifi and the Tano North districts, respectively. A representative of the AfDB, Mr Sebastian Delahaye, disclosed that the phase two of REP had benefited thousands of families and households throughout the 53 districts where it was being implemented and named its major achievements as the training of 30,000 people through community-based skills development, the training of 3,500 master craftsmen and the certification of 8,000 apprentices. Source: Myjoyonline.com/Ghana