GIS for the salt industry in Ghana

Ghana's annual production of salt of 250,000 metric tones falls far short of her potential for commercial production estimated at 2.5 to 3.0 million metric tones per annum, Mr Joe Baidoo-Ansah , Minister for Trade, Industry, Private Sector Development and PSI said yesterday.

This is due to inefficient production methods, obsolete machinery, lack of capital and industry data information and weak production infrastructure.

To salvage the situation, the Ministry with support from the Centre for Remote Sensing and Geographical Information Services and UNICEF, have established the National Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to provide the right information needed for an accelerated growth of the industry, Mr Baidoo-Ansah stated.

Launching the GIS yesterday, the Minister said the salt industry had been identified as one of the strategic industries in which the country had high growth potentials and the PSI and the GIS would transform the Ghanaian salt industry into an internationally competitive one.

He said the system, which would tap both unexploited and underexploited salt deposits, would be capable of providing one of the best quality salts for the people in the sub-region and beyond.

Benefits to be derived from the GIS include an information gateway for investors, a database for the salt industry, contours on producing areas in Ghana, detailed information on towns where there is salt and pictorial presentation on the salt industry in Ghana.

Source : http://www.modernghana.com/