The Savannah Accelerated Development Authority (SADA) and some partners from Uganda intend to cultivate 20,000 hectares of sugar cane plantation in the Northern Region.
Having surveyed the area for the plantation, the authority is currently doing the soil analysis to determine nutrient content, composition, and other characteristics such as the acidity or pH level of the soil.
Varieties of sugar are also currently being tested at Yagaba in the Northern Region by the Integrated Water & Agricultural Development Ghana Limited (IWAD) towards the cultivation of the plantation.
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of SADA, Mr Charles Abugre, disclosed this to the Daily Graphic when the authority met with stakeholders to make presentations on the Tamale and Buipe Infrastructure plans.
He said the waste from the sugar cane production would also be used to generate about 40 megawatts of power which would be enough to cater for the energy needs in the whole of Tamale.
“Tamale absorbs only about 30 megawatts of power at peak period so the power from the sugar cane plantation alone can satisfy Tamale’s energy demands,” he stated.
Mr Abugre also pointed out that the authority was currently working together with the China Textile and Apparel Council to also cultivate about 50,000 hectares of cotton for a string of factories in northern Ghana.
He said plans were far advanced in this regard as well.
Changed approach
The CEO also mentioned that SADA was changing its approach from directly investing in projects to marketing the area to attract investments.
He said if the authority positioned itself properly, it would attract significant investments in the area.
“Increasingly, SADA has decided not to do projects in a direct way. We make things happen and sometimes it may mean spending some money or acquiring the land, co-investing or investing in the information. So for the sugar plantation, we are investing in the soil research, the weather research and the process of land acquisition,” he added.
He noted that if the authority prepared the appropriate information and marketed the area adequately, it would attract interest in the northern half of the country.
Tamale and Buipe Infrastructure plans
The Tamale Teaching Hospital, the Buipe Inland Port and the Kintampo Tourism Cluster – form part of SADA’s master plan which will serve as a blueprint to the transformation of the zone.
The development of the Volta Lake Transportation System is also one of the sub-projects under the Buipe Inland Port project that is envisaged to help unlock the tourism potentials of the Kintampo municipality and the Brong Ahafo Region in general.
The Buipe Inland Port and the Volta Lake Transportation System is seen as two of SADA’s most ambitious projects under its master plan that would enable Ghana to compete with Cote d’Ivoire and Togo in the transit cargo business.
These three projects recently received a facelift as the Rasmal Invest Group of Morocco signed an agreement with SADA to invest a minimum of $800 million into the projects.