Ghana’s Akpeteshie can compete well on the international market - President Akufo-Addo

According to the president, although the gin has been a ‘local champion’ all this while, it could go international and become one of the high export commodities the nation can leverage in growing the economy.

“I doubt that anyone would, ordinarily, mention akpeteshie, the local gin, as a possible item on the world market. I cannot vouch for its taste or potency, since I gave up alcohol many years ago.

“But I can say that the Made in Ghana and beautifully packaged “Apio”, I have recently seen, can compete in the most sophisticated markets in the world,” President Akufo-Addo said.

He stated this in his second-term inauguration address on Thursday, January 7, 2021, when he spoke about the need for Ghana to pursue self-reliance through industrialization and exportation rather than excessive importation of almost everything it consumes.

He added that the Eku Fruit Juice produced by Ekumfi Fruit Juices Company Limited operating under the One District One Factory policy is a great step towards industrialization and exportation of locally produced goods for foreign exchange.

Before his inauguration, MPs-elect of the legislature had a difficulty in arriving at a compromise on the voting process to elect a speaker who would then swear them in to constitute the 8th parliament.

The NDC caucus was not pleased with the rules of the voting as they claimed its secrecy was likely to be compromised.

Both NDC and the NPP sides of the house had nominated candidates for the speakership and the clerk as per the standing orders called for secret balloting to determine the winner.

This was after a heated long argument over whether the MP-elect for Assin-North, James Gyakye Quayson should be allowed to take part in the proceedings or not due to a court injunction against his election.

While the NDC side was the first to nominate ex-member and second deputy speaker of the 7th parliament, Alban Sumana Bagbin, the NPP side nominated the house’s immediate past speaker, professor Aaron Mike Oquaye for re-election for the speakership.

The stakes in the speakership were so high because both caucuses have 137 seats each according to the results gazetted by the electoral commission as well as one independent MP-elect for Fomena.

The process was hostile with the lawmakers-elect seen in near-fisticuff confrontations over the voting process and the secrecy of the ballots. Ballot boxes were snatched and kicked about by agitating members of the NDC side of the house.

Tension in the legislative house was so high that after four hours, no consensus could be reached on the voting modalities to protect its secrecy and the clerk had to move out till calm was restored.

The election of the speaker and the rest of the processes to constitute the 8th parliament was to precede the inauguration of the president-elect of the country, Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo in the morning of January 7, 2021.

Ghana’s Akpeteshie can compete well on the international market - President Akufo-Addo

Akpeteshie is a locally brewed Ghanaian gin, popularly called ‘apio’ which is widely consumed across the country.

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