Ayensu Starch Factory Back To Business

By Mohammed Awal [[email protected]]
The government, as part of its continuous quest to resuscitate defunct national assets, last Friday inaugurated the revamped Ayensu Starch Company Limited [ASCO] at Bawjiase in the Central Region.

ASCO's re-launching was being implemented under a Public Private Partnership (PPP) scheme with Tiberias Ghana Limited, with the Government of Ghana owning 30% of the revamped factory, and designed to address the ballooning unemployment and poverty levels in the country.

Per the PPP scheme, the factory was expected to employ about 60 people, with over 1000 out-growers, who would be the main suppliers of cassava to the factory.

But, according to its Managing Director, if need be, “the company will buy fresh cassava from third party producers who operate beyond the project coverage area” to ensure all year-round supplies of cassava for processing, thus maximising the capacity utilisation of the processing plant.

He said the factory's operational strategy would be based on an innovative “farmer-ownership” scheme called the Corporate Village Enterprises (COVEs) model.

He explained that the COVEs “are set up as large scale private corporate entities, owned by farmers in rural communities, which are managed by experienced professional managers, recruited on a performance contract basis.”

“The COVE model is intended to bring rural communities into mainstream economic activity,” he added.

He said twenty-five thousand farmers, “under this [COVE] project”, had already set up a COVE company, aimed at cultivating 5,000 acres of cassava crop, representing the average two acres per farmer, as each farmer was required to “deliver a minimum quantity of fresh cassava to the manufacturing plant for processing.”

Established in 2002 as a limited liability entity, and commissioned in February 2004 with the capacity to process 22,000 metric tonnes of cassava by the erstwhile New Patriotic Party (NPP) government, the ASCO, despite the laudableness of its objective, ceased operations as a result of challenges, including inadequacy of raw materials, incessant power outages, and lack of working capital among others.

“The future looks very bright and promising for the company and its partners,” said Mr. Shi in a tone that suggested the new management of the revamped factory would do all they could to prevent it from collapsing again.

He said ASCO welcomes collaborations with interested partners, in respect of the development of a super sewerage disposal system with a capacity of 15000 m3 methane to reduce the discharge of sewerage, as well as developing the green sustainable production, plus 20,000 metric tonnes of biological energy sources per annum.

These, according to Mr. Shi, would go a long way to ensure that, “the Ayensu Starch Factory will have an all-year-round production, [positioning] it as the cassava and starch hub for Ghana and beyond.”

The Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration Minister, Hanna Serwa Tetteh, said of the re-launched factory that “the business is indeed back on track.”

She said the PPP between the Ministry of Trade and Industry and Tiberias Limited would, undoubtedly, inure to the benefit of the factory, because it was through “that partnership that this company is going to be recapitalised” for it to be able to renew its equipment.

She expressed the government’s optimism in the success of the factory, saying, “going forward, this initiative will not only be in …[a] position to supply the breweries, who have become perhaps the first line of customers for your production, but many other industrial establishments in Ghana that also use starch in the course of their industrial process.”

“We believe that once you are able to return to normal, continuous [and] consistent production, they'll also see it possible to include you as part of their supply chain…and we certainly wish you all the best in this endeavour,” she added.