A GhC925 milion (US$250 million) sugar mill project is to be set up in the Eastern Region to produce sugar and ethanol for export to the West Africa market.
The project, earmarked to begin next year, would produce 200 metric tonnes of sugar and 50 million litres of ethanol annually.
Spearheaded by the Nungua Warehouse Ghana Limited (NWGL), a wholly owned Ghanaian company, which is into the importation and distribution of ethanol, the project will receive assistance from Messrs Gapuma UK Limited and Messrs Superior Spirits Pvt of India.
The Chief Executive Officer of NWGL, Mr Collins Otoo Okley, told the Daily GRAPHIC at the weekend that the company would consequently set up a sugar plantation to feed the mill to avoid any importation of raw material.
“The initial plantation will be on a 2,500 acre land with modern irrigation facilities and would also generate more than 5,000 direct jobs which would help alleviate poverty in the community,” he explained after the company inuagurated its ultra-modern branch office and warehouse in Kpong in the Eastern Region.
“The production of sugar and ethanol locally would help reduce imports and the consequent pressure on the Ghana Cedi,” he added. The processing plant, he said, would produce sugar, alcohol as well as provide electricity.
“The project will start next year, our partners have been here already and they will be coming back again, as soon as they come we will set the mill rolling,” he explained.
Plans, he said, were far advanced to establish a six million litre capacity tank in Kumasi to receive ethanol in bulk for sale in Kumasi and other parts of northern Ghana.
“The Kumasi project is strategically positioned opposite the Boankra Inland Port and the plan is to go to Takoradi. We are getting all the key areas in place so we can reach the whole of Ghana,” he said. According to him, preliminary checks in areas earmarked for the projects show that the business prospects were good.
Mr Otoo Okley explained that the company chose the Eastern Region owing to the availability of irrigation facilities within the catchment area of the project. He also said the receptive nature of the people within Kpong and its environs would make it possible for the company to operate there smoothly.