The Savelugu Municipal Rice Processing Factory under the government’s flagship programme, One District, One Factory (1D1F) is set to commence full operations by end of December 2022 or early January 2023.
According to Secretary of the governing Board of the factory, Mr. Tahiru Alhassan, the facility will be managed by the TAMA Naa Company Limited.
He said the company prior to this year’s crop season supported Farmer-Based Organizations (FBOs) in the municipality with inputs among other resources to cultivate rice that will be processed.
“We’re harvesting them very soon, but by next week I will be bringing my rice to the factory. We have about 750 farmers who have been supported by the company and they will all bring their rice here”, he pointed out.
Mr. Tahiru Alhassan in an exclusive interview said one of the reasons why there has been a delay in the commencement of factory was because the transformer supplying electricity to it could not provide adequate power for the machines to function.
He noted however that a much bigger transformer capable of providing he requisite electricity to the factory has been secured and installed now.
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo in August 2021 commissioned the GH¢7.3 million rice processing during his Northern Regional tour.
The 1D1F Common User Facility (CUF) is a farmer-owned agro-processing facility established with seed funding from the Ministry of Trade and Industry under the Rural Enterprises Programme.
The processing plant installed at the factory includes modern parboiling, milling, and packaging installations.
It also has a mechanized borehole to supply water and a standby power plant.
NDC’s claims
Meanwhile, the opposition National Democratic Congress had earlier made claims that the factory was left to rot.
The NDC among others also claimed that no single person has been employed into the factory and that the facility has become the hub of lizards among other reptiles.
However, the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) in the Savelugu Constituency has refuted the claims at a news conference last Thursday and implored the NDC to seek information from the relevant authorities and desist from misinforming the public.
The Savelugu NPP Communication Director, Abukari Gafaru stated the opposition party will not dictate the pace at which the Akufo-Addo led-NPP government would conduct its business.
“The NPP as the party in power conducts our governmental business in our own terms and how they are planned and not at the beck and call of the failed celebrated NDC”, he emphasised.
Mr. Gafaru added that the erstwhile John Kufuor NPP government established the Savelugu Oil Depot and Shea butter processing factories and the Akufo-Addo government has also successfully completed the Rice Processing Factory and the Technology Solutions Center making a total of four factories.
The Communication Officer indicated the record of the NDC is bizarre despite that they won the Savelugu parliamentary than any other political party.
He further called out the main opposition party for deceiving Ghanaians in 2014 that they were building a sugar processing factory at Dipale in the Savelugu municipality.
“This factory appeared in the State of the Nation Address of the NDC three consecutive years, yet neither a brick nor block was laid in line with bringing the factory to fruition. If the NDC wants the NPP to apologize to Ghanaians then John Mahama should be hanged and let me tell you [showing the site picture of the sugar factory], it cost the NDC government GH¢200 million to erect”, he intimated.
