Parliament of Ghana
The Minister of President’s Special Development Initiatives Mavis Hawa Koomson has expressed shock at the abandoned state of the Tumu Cotton Ginnery in the Upper West Region.
The facility has not been in use for several years because there are no raw materials for it to process because farmers from the area see cotton farming as non lucrative and have veered into the cultivation of food crops.
Madam Mavis Hawa Koomson who led a team of government officials to visit the facility on Monday, said she had been saddened by the fact that the previous government failed to take steps in revamping the ginnery that is critical to cotton production in the country.
“What we saw here is beyond our imagination as we taught the problem was with the machines but that is not the issue”, she observed.
The minister promised that the Tumu cotton ginnery would be operationalized to revive cotton production to feed the industry soon after the law to rename and restructure the Savanna Accelerated Development Authority (SADA) is done.
She indicated that the land is available and farmers are ready to work and indicating her ministry’s readiness to bring together private sector operators and other stakeholders to identify the problems and resolve them.
“We are not happy, the team is not happy for what we have seen here……. We cry that there is poverty in the Northern region and if we always cry that we are poor and we have this property lying down here and doing nothing, how do we bridge the gap” she questioned.
Madam Mavis Hawa Koomson said she understands the cotton ginnery can employ 1000 or more people with the exception of farmers and expressed hope that the cotton ginnery if revamped has the capacity of employing over 5,000 persons.
She therefore further assured of the ministry’s commitment to work with the ministry for Trade and industry to make sure the cotton ginnery sees the light of day.
