Government to take over lands for salt production

Government is to compulsorily acquire pieces of land as part of efforts to increase the production of salt in the country. The land will be handed over to the entrepreneurs interested in the salt industry for the creation of saltpans. Ghana currently produces less than 300,000 metric tonnes of salt annually and government hopes to gradually increase the production of the commodity to about one million metric tonnes over the next four years.

But experts who have been working with government towards the achievement of this objective have warned that the problems associated with the acquisition could be a serious setback.

Minister for Private Sector Development, Kwamena Bartels told the monthly luncheon of the Ghana-American Chamber of Commerce that government will compulsorily acquire land to boost salt production. Government wants to increase salt production locally and export the commodity to Nigeria, which imports millions of tonnes of salt annually from Brazil.