The president, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo says government is in the process of finding a strategic investor to revive the “debt-ridden and idle” Komenda Sugar Factory.
According to President Akufo-Addo, the search for a strategic investor has become necessary because his administration, upon assuming office on 7th January, 2017, inherited a non-operational Komenda Sugar Factory.
The President noted that, after its commissioning in 2016, the Komenda Sugar Factory has not undertaken any commercial processing of sugarcane into sugar, due to serious deficiencies in the planning of the project.
READ: PHOTOS: Man arrested for stealing MPs’ toilet roll at Parliament House
These deficiencies, he said, include the unavailability of sugarcane in sufficient quantities in the catchment area, as well as inadequate working capital required to make the factory functional.
President Akufo-Addo made this known on Friday, 14th September, 2018, when he addressed a durbar of chiefs and people of Komenda, in the Central Region at the commencement of his 4-day tour of the Region.
Additionally, it has also been determined that the general soil condition of the available land is not wholly suitable for sugarcane cultivation, and will require substantial amounts of fertilizer input to improve the yields.
It is against this background, and in reaction to appeals made by the Omanhen of the Komenda Traditional Area, Nana Kojo Kru II, for the revival of the factory, that President Akufo-Addo indicated that a new strategic investor is being sought for the operationalization of the factory.
READ: Farmer jailed for harming grandson
The President was hopeful that a strategic investor would be found soon for the factory.
With residents of Komenda being predominantly fisherfolk, the President assured the Chiefs and people that the processes for the establishment of landing beaches and sites in coastal communities such as Komenda, Elmina, Jamestown, Keta and Axim, amongst others, are at an advanced stage, and soon the construction of these landing sites will commence.
“We came to improve the standards of living of the Ghanaian people, and that is what my government is doing. My predecessor only left me with only debt, even though he was the single largest recipient of revenues of all Presidents put together since the time of Kwame Nkrumah. However, I remain unshaken, and I am working to fulfill my promises to the Ghanaian people,” he added.
President Akufo-Addo, as part of his visit to Komenda, also took time to see for himself, at firsthand, the state of the Komenda Sugar Factory.
READ: Finance Minister backs GRA’s new initiatives to increase tax mobilisation
He also inspected the Petersfield and Rey Ltd., a citrus-processing factory, which is operating under the “1-District-1-Factory” initiative, and urged the company to position itself to take advantage of the Continental Free Trade Area (CFTA), with a market of some 1.2 billion people.
Komenda Roads
Also speaking at the durbar was the Minister for Roads and Highways, Hon. Kwasi Amoako-Atta, who stated that road constructions are currently ongoing in every part of the Central Region, and, indeed, in every part of the country.
In particular, he noted that the 5-kilometre stretch of road leading into the Komenda township is undergoing construction, and will be completed in 12 months.
Again, the 6-kilometre “internal feeder roads” in the Komenda College of Education, he said, are being constructed, and pledged that “in a year’s time, all these projects will be constructed.”
Touching on the construction of the bridge over the Brenya Lagoon, which begun in 2014, Hon. Kwasi Amoako-Atta noted that “substantial completion” of the bridge commenced in 2017, and “within this week, the bridge will be handed over to the people of KEEA.”
Procurement processes, he added, are also underway for the construction of 5-kilometres of Komenda town roads.