Asamankese to get timber market

The Domestic Lumber Trade Association (DOLTA) in collaboration with the West Akyem Municipal Assembly is to build a timber market at Asamankese.

The construction of the market would make business easy for wood sellers in the area, as well as promote job creation in the municipality.

Currently the absence of such a facility in the area is affecting the business of wood sellers as customers have to go round looking for the product to buy.

The project has been incorporated into an industrial zone, under the Rural Enterprise Project of the assembly.

To ensure that DOLTA members operate within the laws of the timber trade, a day’s workshop was organized for about 300 members of the association at Asamankese with funding from the Business Sector Advocacy and Challenge Fund (BUSAC).

Mr Cadman Dadzie, Service Provider and Consultant, said the benefits to be derived from the establishment of the market would not only benefit the association but the entire municipality.

He said the placing of wood sellers at one location would ensure that they operate within the laws.

Mr Nsiah Bempah Ahmed, the Kade District Forestry Officer, said members would be trained on the use of “log saw or wood mixer”; equipment that reduces wastage in wood processing and logging.

He said due to the scarcity of local timber, plans had been made to import the commodity from Gabon, Cameroun and Guyana.

Mr David Siaw, Eastern Regional Secretary of DOLTA, noted “once we have the market, it will keep members of the association in business”.

“We need the market in order for us to stay in business”.

Mr Siaw said DOLTA is a legal entity and that no one would be given a license to operate if that person is not a member of the association.

Source: GNA