Ayensu Starch Factory fails to meet production targets

The Ayensu Starch Company failed to produce the expected 4,000 metric tons of starch for Guinness Company Limited by June 2014.

The Company is further expected to produce an additional 10,000 tons June 2015 when it could not even produce a thousand metric of starch last year.

Currently, the factory is crippled with productivity, management, supply and technical challenges that compelled the workers to lay down their tools some months ago.

Mr. Kweku Ricketts-Hagan, the Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry, has said the government was making efforts to put the factory in the hands of the private sector to inject the required capital to help boost production and achieve its targets.

He said during a visit to the company that it was imperative that industries were run by the private sector with the government being a shareholder to give the companies the needed support to succeed.

According to the Minister, though a definitive decision had not been made yet the government was looking for a partnership that would involve a Ghanaian and a foreigner or a Ghanaian to resolve the problems of ageing machines and other issues of the company to enhance productivity.

He said the arrangement was in line with government’s private partnership policy of involving the private sector in giving a big boost to local industries adding that “companies and industries are better run by the private sector than the government.”

The Managing Director of the company, Mr. James Bitir, said insufficient supply of electricity was a major contributor to the Factory’s inability to meet operational targets.

The Ayensu Starch Factory was set up in 2003 as an agro-processing business involved in the processing of cassava into food grade starch for local consumption and export.

Source: GNA