Techiman tomato factory privatized

Some members of the Techiman Municipal Assembly on Tuesday expressed unhappiness over the privatisation of the Techiman Tomato factory.

They said what is disturbing is that the Assembly members were not consulted before the factory was privatised.

Mr Effah Moro, Assemblyman for Sansama, and spokesperson for the Assembly members, told the Ghana News Agency that the former President John Agyekum Kufuor commissioned the facility and handed it over to the tomato farmers in the Municipality.

He explained that the Food and Agriculture Organisation through the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA) funded the construction of the processing plant under the leadership of Mr Ernest Akubour Debrah, the then sector minister for MOFA.

Mr Moro said the government then imported hybrid tomatoes seeds from Germany, Italy and France and built an irrigation dam at Kaniago and Kokroko in the Municipality for the farmers to grow and feed the factory.

He said the project, which encouraged many of the unemployed youth in the area to join the tomato farming, was left dormant till 2012, when Mr Kwasi Ahwoi, the previous Minister of MOFA, re-commissioned the factory.

Mr Moro said at the Assembly’s sitting on June 20, 2013, Madam Diana Abrokwa, Assemblywoman for Tunsuoase, and Nkousahemaa of Techiman, asked about the state of the tomato factory only for the whole Assembly to be informed that it had been sold.

He said the name of the factory has now been changed to Techiman Processing Complex, adding that Assembly members are not aware of the transaction and would not sit unconcerned for the privatization of the facility meant for the tomato farmers in the entire Municipality.

Source: GNA