Future of Komenda sugar factory very bright - Omane Boamah

Communication minister Dr. Edward Omane Boamah says the economic prospects of the Komenda Sugar Factory are very bright in spite of fears that the revamped factory faces an uncertain future. He explained that government has addressed an important concern about the consistent supply of raw material. The factory will buy 60% of the sugarcane it needs from farmers within the catchment area and 40% will be produced and supplied by the company’s own farm. The usual pomp accompanied the President’s commissioning of the Komenda Sugar Factory in the Central region Monday. He called the revamping a resurrection of the vision of Ghana’s first president Dr. Kwame Nkrumah. He built the factory in the 1960s as part of an industrialization plan to create a self-reliant economy. But the facility struggled to operate in the 1980s, a period of austerity and economic decline. It finally collapsed. More than 20 years later, the facility has began processing sugarcane into exportable products and by-products. But there is cautious optimism surrounding the economic breakthrough. Questions are been asked if it will not go the way of the Pwalugu Tomato Factory, now the Northern Star Tomato Processing Factory. The tomato factory, another built by Dr. Kwame Nkrumah in the 1960s was revamped in 2006 and later in 2009. But it is still struggling to stay afloat. Omane Boamah explained that the factory that could soon erase the import of 375,000 metric tonnes of sugar is worth any operation challenge it may face. "Apple, Samsung, Huawei and several multinational companies face challenges," he said. “When you translate challenges to mean permanent problems then, you do not have the attitude and mindset to transform that national asset”, he said. He pointed out that Ghanaian management of the Ghana Airport Company has proved to be a success story. The company is funding the building of an aerodrome