Concerned Citizens of Komenda Traditional Area in the Central Region have refuted claims by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo that the Komenda Sugar factory has been revamped to produce sugar of commercial quantity in the country.
The president on a tour of the area over the weekend said the factory has been revamped and will be fully operationalised in December.
However, the convener for the Concerned Citizens of Komenda Traditional Area, Samuel Awugah, is contesting the President’s claim to revamp the factory.
He said for the past three weeks the factory has not been working with 80 percent of the factory workers laid off.
He added the factory was only powered last Saturday, September 3, 2022, when the president announced his visit to the facility.
Samuel Awugah speaking on the Ghana Yensom morning show hosted by Mr. Emmanuel Quarshie on Accra 100.5 FM on Monday, September 5, 2022, said the factory has been rusting away since it was test-run and shut down for maintenance some seven years ago.
He claimed that it was when the president decided to visit the factory that the management of the factory moved to buy some Akpeteshie sugarcanes to utilize the factory to create the impression the factory was being run.
“Even in the wake of this, the factory only produced some 29 bags of sugar and shut down,” he alleged and questioned that if the management of the factory claims that the factory will be operational by December what raw materials are they going to use?
Also, he noted that the B41 type of sugarcane takes about six months to grow.
“The latest news about production at the factory was a matter of window dressing to impress the president,” he stressed.
He said the over 200 out-growers of the factory are idling about at home because the factory was not working.
He stressed that “as we speak the factory has been shut down.”
