President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has disclosed that the Komenda Sugar Factory will start operations by the first quarter of 2021.
The President made this known while answering questions on the subject in an interview during his tour of the Central Region, today, Monday, October 18, 2021.
According to him, the government canceled the contract with a partner because they could not meet the conditions precedent of the contract.
He said the project was overburdened by the previous administration but efforts have been adopted to ensure that the factory is revived.
The Ministry, he added, is currently looking for technical partners, and by the first quarter of 2022, the factory will start operations.
The President described the factory as a big albatross on the neck of the government and it is not something we can not allow to collapse. “We have plans to revive it,” he added.
Meanwhile, the response from the President is in sharp contrast to what the Minister told Parliament some few months ago.
He had told Parliament that the transaction advisor had been asked to ensure the roadmap for the opening of the factory was finalized by the end of August 2021.
“I have instructed the transaction advisor to ensure that the condition precedent to the concession agreement and the roadmap for the opening of the factory is finalized by the end of August 2021 to enable operational activities at the factory to commence before the end of the year,” Alan Kyerematen said.
A Ghanaian-Indian company, Park Agrotech Ghana Limited, the Minister had announced was the new investor who was supposed to take over the operations of the factory.
The government in 2019 said the company was expected to inject $28 million into the factory between 2020 and 2023.
$11 million was to go into sugarcane cultivation, $6 million to upgrade plant and machinery and $11 million as working capital to bring the ailing factory back on its feet.
The Ghana-based company the Minister announced some few months ago is a subsidiary of the Skylark Group of Companies of India, one of the largest integrated farming businesses in India.
The Komenda Sugar Factory was built at a cost of $35 million from an Indian EXIM Bank facility.