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Entrepreneur and founder of the Progressive People’s Party (PPP), has said God will punish anyone whose action leads to the collapse of the newly revived Komenda Sugar factory in the Central Region.

“God will punish anyone who plays politics with the people over this new factory whether they are in government or opposition,” he noted in a recent piece.

Dr. Nduom who has been a major critic of the factory charged government to ensure that adequate measures are put in place to prevent it from collapsing. President John Dramani Mahama on Monday inaugurated the 24.5 million dollar factory which was felt built by Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, but left to deteriorate. 

During the inauguration of the factory, President Mahama said it will create over 7,000 jobs. But critics have suggested that government’s decision to open the factory without the needed raw material to run it could only mean that it was done for political gain going into elections in November.

Subsequent revelations that the newly revived factory is to be closed down for six months for routine maintenance have further deepened doubts about the sustainability of the facility.

Jobs for Ghanaians

Dr. Nduom explained that the sugar factory before its collapse some years back served as a source of employment for numerous Ghanaians in the region.

“We want this new Komenda Sugar Factory to succeed. The failure of the old factory brought prolonged unemployment, early death and desperation. Some of the people who caused the old factory to fail did not consider the fact that real people’s lives and livelihoods were at stake. A lot of them only considered the politics of something put there by an opposing political party.”

Raw material 

Dr. Nduom also questioned what government was doing to guarantee adequate and cost effective raw material for the factory.

“…I want to know what measures government has put in place to ensure price competitiveness for this factory’s produce. How will this factory compete with imports? How will it survive a future change in government?”

“Our company has acquired land near the factory and we are ready to grow sugarcane so when and where can we get the right sugarcane to plant? We have invested in equipment to take output from the factory and market it through transformation. Our investment will come to naught if the factory fails. So when some of us offer suggestions, or criticize what is going wrong, we mean well. We have our self-interest at heart and the people’s welfare in mind,” he added.