Should We Build Mini Poultry Processing Plants In All The 216 Districts Of Ghana?

The main reason why most Ghanaians purchase imported poultry products is that they are convenient - in meal preparation terms that is.

There is no question that  the vast majority of those who purchase imported poultry products in Ghana would immediately switch to locally produced poultry products - if they were processed too for their convenience: because they would be fresher and tastier than the imported ones they are currently obliged to buy as a result of the non-availability of processed local substitutes.

Dr. Kofi Amoah, the  tycoon affectionately called Citizen Kofi by many Ghanaians, has backed calls for a ban on imported poultry products - because he knows the job-creation potential of the poultry industry.

One can therefore understand his concerns about the impact of imported poultry products on Ghana's poultry industry, because the  industry can defintely create and spread private-sector wealth that stays in Ghana and jobs galore for young people.

Perhaps it has never struck the brilliant Citizen Kofi that what is actually needed - if our nation's  poultry industry is grow and thrive - is a mini poultry processing plant in every district in Ghana with the capacity to process between 500-2000 birds per day.

Speaking as a vegetarian who is not averse to those who love eating chicken doing so, the question is: Why does he not repeat  his Western Union remittances business-idea success in solving the problem of getting Ghanaians to buy locally produced poultry products, too?

Surely, he is capable of leveraging his extensive personal network of contacts to help those administering the government's 1-District-1-Factory initiative to create a consortium of consultants to enable them obtain funds from sources such as the African Development Bank (AfDB), the World Bank's International Finance Corporation (IFC) and, above all, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, to bring companies that manufacture mini poultry processing plants, such as the Indian company RNDAutomation, to Ghana, to manufacture mini poultry processing plants locally in joint-venture start-ups with Ghanaian entrepreneurs?

Their locally manufactured poultry processing plants can then be included in the 1-District-1-Factory initiative  - to make possible public private partnership joint-ventures between  Ghanaian entrepreneurs and all the 216 District Assemblies in Ghana, could they not?

The secret to expanding the market for locally produced poultry products is to build mini poultry processing plants in all Ghana's 216 districts. Food for thought.