Komenda Sugar Factory still sits idle

The delay in naming a strategic investor to help revamp the ailing Komenda Sugar Factory has deepened the woes of the establishment.

Currently, the $60-million factory located at Komenda in the Komenda-Edina-Eguafo-Abrem (KEEA) municipality in the Central Region is wasting away, as it is overgrown with weeds resulting from three years of lying idle.

The harsh weather conditions and the salty breeze from the Atlantic Ocean that lies about three kilometres from the factory have triggered rapid corrosion of the metallic parts of machinery at the factory.

During a visit by the Daily Graphic to the factory last Thursday, it was observed that weeds had virtually taken over the premises, making it a haven for rodents and reptiles.

The rusty metallic parts of machines indicated that further delay in putting the factory to use could lead to additional costs in terms of repairs and replacement of those parts.

At the cane yard, for instance, the cane table which drops sugar cane into the conveyor belt during processing was rusted.

The cutter, which receives sugar cane from the conveyor belt for processing, and the vaporisation chamber had not been spared, as they were also dusty and lay idle.

When the Daily Graphic got to the site about 12 noon, there was very little human activity going on. Just a few of the core technical staff, comprising agronomists, engineers and mechanics, had gathered for a meeting. Security men were, however, around to protect the property.

Residents concerns

The state of the factory is a major source of worry for residents of the municipality, who have called on the government to expedite action on naming a strategic investor to revamp the dormant factory.

According to them, the dormant state of the factory had robbed many of them of their sources of livelihood, a development which had in turn negatively affected business activities in the area.

They also said the continued neglect of the factory defeated the government’s One-district, One-factory (1D1F) industrialisation policy.
One of the residents, Abusuapanyin Ebow Jones, described the state of the factory as an eyesore and called for immediate steps to revamp it.

"The people of KEEA were so happy when the factory was inaugurated by the previous government in 2016 because it created a lot of employment opportunities and brought life to the catchment area.

“The businesses of our youth and women started soaring and we all heaved a sigh of relief, but now we are in sorrow because the factory has been left idle and grasscutters have taken over, instead of human beings. We want 

politicians to stop politicising this factory in the interest of the masses here," he said.

Another resident, Mr Roger Bosomtwi, called on the government to name a strategic investor to run the factory if, indeed, it wanted the people of the area to believe in the 1D1F policy.

"The New Patriotic Party government is talking about 1D1F but the Komenda Sugar Factory has been left for rats to operate. It is a national asset and so they should renovate it because the people of KEEA also deserve a factory," he said.

For her part, a maize seller known only as Auntie Araba said the closure of the factory had made life difficult for women in petty trading in particular, as patronage of their wares had reduced drastically.

"Going for fishing now is no longer profitable because of dwindling fish stock. The factory is also not working and so we find it difficult to pay our children's school fees. We appeal to the government to listen to our cries and revamp the factory for us," she said.

Workers’ plight

The Daily Graphic gathered that there was anxiety among the over 1,000 registered outgrowers of sugar cane because they risked losing their investments while the factory remained dormant.

It was also learnt that the technical staff at the factory were owed salaries of close to three years.

A source at the factory said the technical employees were frustrated because they had not been paid and so they could no longer take care of themselves and their families.

"As we speak, some of us have worked for three years here but it was only in December 2018 that they gave us some small money; meanwhile we have families to take care of.

"We want the government to be fast about getting an investor to run the factory, so that we can all be certain that our situation will improve," it added.

The Omanhen of the Edina Traditional Area, Nana Kwodwo Conduah VI, while addressing a durbar to climax the Bakatue Festival last Saturday, called for the opening of the factory to create jobs.

Responses

A source at the accounting and advisory firm, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), told the Daily Graphic that the firm had finished its work on selecting a strategic investor and submitted the report to the relevant agency of government.

When asked about the road map for revamping the factory, the Head of Public Relations at the Ministry of Trade and Industry, Mr Prince Boakye-Boateng, said the government was close to naming a strategic investor for the factory.

"Everybody, including the government, workers and residents of KEEA, wants to see the factory running efficiently, but we cannot operate a factory that lacks things that are necessary for it to run.

"The government is committed to getting an investor to run the factory because state funds were invested in it. We have received interests from a number of investors and we are almost at the end of the process to get the investor,” he said.

Mr Boakye-Boateng said some people might want to term the delay in naming the investor a waste of time, “but it is better that we do not do anything that will send us back to the reasons the factory is not working”.

The Municipal Chief Executive (MCE) for KEEA, Nana Appiah Korang, who is also a member of the Interim Management Committee (IMC) of the factory, gave an assurance that the factory would start operating before the end of the year.

"The residents of KEEA are justified in demanding the revamping of the factory and I can assure them that a government that introduced 1D1F will not allow a factory which fits perfectly into that policy to rot," he said.

He said a memorandum of understanding (MoU) had been signed with chiefs and landowners in the area for the release of 20,000 acres for the growing of sugar cane to feed the factory.

"We are working to be sure of our raw material base because if there are no raw materials, the factory will only run for one or two years and become idle again," he said.

Background

In 2016, the government secured a $35-million Export-Import (EXIM) Bank, India loan to set up the Komenda Sugar Factory.

An additional $24 million facility was set aside to support outgrower farmers.

The factory was commissioned on May 31, 2016, by President John Dramani Mahama, amid pomp and ceremony, to produce sugar, but it became stillborn due to a multiplicity of factors that were described as "technical and operational challenges".

For the past three years, the factory has been left to deteriorate.

While addressing a durbar of the chiefs and the people of Komenda in the Central Region on September 14, 2018, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo gave an assurance that the government was in the process of getting a strategic investor to revive the factory.

On April 5, this year, the Minister of Trade and Industry, Mr Alan Kyerematen, also assured Parliament that a strategic investor would be named by the end of that month to acquire the assets of the factory and help operationalise it.