<<Print>>

The New Statesman has been reliably informed by some of the highly placed technical people working on the recently commissioned, but shut down, Komenda Sugar Factory that actual processing and packaging of sugar in commercial quantities by the factory cannot start even before the end of the year, as the nation has been made to believe by President John Dramani Mahama and his propagandist functionaries.

“As a technical person, I can tell you in all sincerity that the factory is not ready to start commercial processing and packaging because all the machines required to do that are not in place,” the source told the paper yesterday.

According to the source, out of the amount of $35 million earmarked for the project, less than $15 million has so far been spent.

“And without spending more within the shortest possible time, I don’t see how actual production can take place even before the end of the year. In fact, we the technical people find it difficult to understand why the government decided to rush to show the nation that the factory was ready for production. Those who therefore say the whole thing was done for propaganda purposes cannot be far from right,” the source added.

Policy think tank IMANI-Ghana had long indicated that the amount of money invested into the project was not sufficient to fund all the critical components needed to make it successful.

“The government as I speak now is looking for money to implement the out grower scheme-$30 million.
Auxiliary infrastructure will cost at least $ 15 million more. Then you have to add working capital. So we have come full circle only to realise that the project is under capitalised and without considerably more resources it won’t succeed,” Bright Simons, Director of Development Research at IMANI, explained.

He has since insisted the commissioning of the factory was for propaganda gains and nothing else, stressing, “Starting is not the hardest part. Operating profitably is. We have started many similar ventures that have failed because of exactly this kind of disjointed thinking. Who remembers the reactivation of Aboso glass factory in the late nineties? Including the commissioning in an election year?”

The US $35 million Komenda Sugar factory was inaugurated by President John Dramani Mahama on May 30, 2016. The factory was commissioned at a time no well-planned scheme had been put in place for farmers to feed it with sugarcane.

Interestingly, the much publicized factory was shut down exactly one week after its inauguration.

It is recalled that a day after the commissioning, the Central Regional Minister, Kweku Ricketts Hagan, initially announced the sugar factory would be closed down after six months.

He explained that in order for the plant to operate properly, certain steps needed to be followed to help maintain and sustain its operations.

The Minister later announced that the plant would be in the production phase from October–November to May-June. Then the maintenance cycle would be between May-June until October.

Three days after the commissioning, the Minority Leader, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, at a press conference in Parliament, described the development as a lack of planning and research on the part of government.

He had this to say about the decision to shut down the factory: “You are not producing and you pay the workers, you are not going to lay them off. So when it comes on stream again and you have to produce, whatever is produced the overhead cost will build up even when you are not producing. It doesn’t make sense to do this, who are we deceiving?”