President John Mahama is expected to inaugurate the Komenda sugar factory in the Central Region today [Monday].
The factory was established decades ago by the late President Kwame Nkrumah but was later closed down leaving hundreds jobless after some technical and operational challenges.
[contextly_sidebar id=”kFFYVg7iGKoUGVI6RmdiwAmr6BbSJhxg”]Two years ago, government secured a thirty five million dollars Indian Exim Bank facility to bring it back to life.
Currently Ghana’s annual sugar requirement is estimated at close to four hundred thousand tonnes and the factory is expected to produce value added by-products such as energy and alcohol to support industry.
More jobs
President John Dramani Mahama earlier stated that the revamping of the factory will bring create more jobs for the teeming unemployed youth.
Speaking in the Central Region as part of his “accounting to the people tour”, President Mahama promised that access road to the sugar factory would be awarded on contract to facilitate the smooth movement between adjoining communities.
“…Now that the factory is up, we are going to give the road from Komenda junction to Komenda on contract. It will not only come to the factory, it will go all the way to Komenda town and so that is the step of industrializing the country. Step by step we are changing lives in this country and we are transforming Ghana.”
“If we are able to encourage sugar growing in this area, the income that will be generated by the young people will be phenomenal and be able to change their lives so that we can produce enough to feed the factory. The factory will produce sugar to cut down the amount of sugar that we import into this country. Any amount of sugar that this factory produces, we will reduce that amount of sugar from coming in through importation.”
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By: Marian Ansah/citifmonline.com/Ghana