Government has announced a strategic investor for the Komenda Sugar Factory.
Park Aggrotech Company Limited, a subsidiary of the Skylark Group of companies from India won the bid to manage the sugar factory.
On Tuesday officials of the Trade Ministry and PwC introduced the investor to the community and officially handed over the facility to the investor.
The Paramount Chief of Komenda Traditional Area, Nana Kojo Kru II said, “it is a dream come true” that this is happening during his tenure in office as the Paramount Chief of the area.
Three years since its commissioning, the $35 million factory remains defunct.
This has not gone down well with many Ghanaians, especially, residents of Komenda who were promised jobs and other opportunities when the factory was commissioned.
President in September 2018 disclosed that government is in the process of finding a strategic investor to revive the “debt-ridden and idle” factory.
According to him, the sale is due to serious deficiencies including the unavailability of sugarcane in sufficient quantities in the catchment area.
He also revealed that the government has inadequate working capital required to make the factory functional.
Subsequently, the Trade and Industry Minister, Alan Kyeremanten told Parliament in April this year that, the factory will be sold to a new investor at a depreciated value of $12 million.
Explaining the process that led to the selection of the current investor, representatives of PwC, the body that managed the process of looking for a strategic investor, said“ we started with a request for the expression of interest. 15 expressions of interest came in, by the time we actually requested for formal bids, we got about five and then we went through a process of evaluation of those five bids.”