The Minister of Trade and Industry, Kobina Tahiru Hammond, has expressed disappointment at the Minority’s criticism of the government’s decision to lease the Komenda Sugar Factory to West Africa Agro Limited.
Speaking in an interview on Eyewitness News on Citi FM, he justified the move, citing the factory’s challenges and the need to revive its operations to meet domestic demand.
His comment comes after the Minority criticised him over the government’s decision to lease the factory with Ahmed Ibrahim, First Deputy Minority Whip, questioning Hammond’s competence, and Yusif Sulemana, Ranking Member on the Trade and Industry Committee, demanding that the Trade Minister be summoned to answer questions
K. T. Hammond revealed that the factory, inherited from the previous government, faced numerous issues, including non-functional equipment and discrepancies in investment claims.
He stated that the Akufo-Addo-Bawumia government spent over 50 million cedis to rehabilitate the factory, despite the previous government’s claims of investing 36 million dollars.
The Trade Minister emphasised that the lease agreement aims to attract investment and ensure the factory’s viability.
“That equipment sitting out there which is almost becoming a white elephant costs the nation monies that we should not be paying. 36 million dollars when it should have been less than 18 million. The Akufo-Addo government had to spend over 50 million cedis to try and rehabilitate the thing.
“Because after it was rushed through and launched by the then-president before they handed it over to our government, nothing worked. Some pieces of the equipment were truncated, were turned upside down. So we couldn’t get anybody to run it, I mean nobody or any investor will put their money in there, so we got the management company.”
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