Process to attract investors for Komenda Sugar Factory completed – Kyeremanten

Company News of Friday, April 5, 2019

Source: ghananewsagency.org

2019-04-05

Alan Kwadwo Kyeremanteng, Minister of Trade and Industry, announced the completion of the process to attract a new strategic investor for the Komenda sugar plant.

As a result, a recommendation from the Departmental and Cabinet Transaction Advisor was formulated and the final decision would be made by the end of April 2019.

Mr Kyeremanteng made this statement in response to a question put by Mr Samuel Atta-Mills, MP for Komenda / Edina / Eguafo / Abrem, when he appeared before Parliament.

Dr. Atta-Mills wanted to know why the Komenda Sugar Factory had been shut down.

Mr. Kyeremanteng also explained that the previous government, at the end of 2016, had sold its majority shares to a private investor.

However, the process was abandoned because the designated investor did not fulfill its obligations under the Selling and Purchasing Agreement.

He added that the department, in order to put the plant into commercial production viable, decided to launch a new process, together with the transaction advisor, PriceWaterhouseCoopers, to attract a strategic investor to acquire the badets of the Komenda Sugar Factory and manage its badets. operations.

Mr. Kyeremanteng said that the plant, after it was put into service by the previous government on May 31, 2016, had remained unused due to deficiencies in project planning and other financial, technical and legal problems .

He said that in September 2017, the ministry commissioned a technical audit of the plant to determine its technical and operational status.

Mr. Kyeremanteng said that the results of the technical audit showed that a test had never been completed before the plant was commissioned because of the unavailability of Sufficient cane for the test.

He added that at commissioning, the factory was not able to produce the refined white sugar required due to the lack of some processing units, such as units melting clarifiers, vertical crystallizers and the dosing system.

He added that, overall, about 35 items were not installed at commissioning, although they are essential for the production of white sugar without sulphide.

Mr Kyeremanteng also explained that the area of ​​land available for sugar cane was well below the 6,000 acres needed to supply the factory to operate at full capacity.

He added that no outsourcing program had been developed to allow smallholders to operate a plant plantation of cores.

It has largely stated that the state of the soil in the watersheds of the plants was not favorable and required a significant application of organic and inorganic fertilizers to improve yields.