Nduom inaugurates refurbished rice mills at Worawora
The President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Groupe Nduom (GN), Dr Papa Kwesi Nduom, has inaugurated a rice mill at Worawora in the Biakoye District in the Volta Region.
Advertisement
Formerly known as the Oti Rice Mill, the defunct factory was acquired and refurbished by Groupe Nduom (GN) at a cost of GH¢10million. It is now known as Worawora Rice Mill Factory.
The rejuvenated factory, which is expected to produce ‘Edwumawura’ perfumed rice, will also create jobs for hundreds of people in the area.
It would be managed through the Ghana Growth Fund, an investment sector of GN, and the people of Worawora.
Rice importation
Dr Nduom said that the country spent a substantial amount of money on rice importation.
“Imagine the jobs and development we are giving to America, Vietnam and Thailand. I hope our initiative will encourage other investors to follow our footsteps, and in four to five years, all the money we spend on the importation of rice will stay in Ghana for roads, hospitals, schools and in the pockets of farmers.”
According to him, a majority of his staff hailed from the Volta Region.
“The people in this area are hardworking and experts in their respective fields. They will make this mill work,” he said.
Dr Nduom, therefore, urged the workers to take their work seriously and announced that farmers would not only receive prompt payment for their produce but would also be offered life insurance packages.
Production
The Managing Director of the Ghana Growth Fund Company (GGFC,) Mr Kwame Asomaning, said 6000 tonnes of paddy rice had already been purchased from farmers for milling.
He said the rice would later be bagged for sale at competitive prices.
He indicated that about 20,000 lives would be touched following the investment, adding that “if the huge amounts of money used in rice importation had been invested in local rice cultivation, the lifestyles of farmers would have changed overnight.”
“Ghana has 580,000 acres of land that can produce 1.7 million tonnes of rice to feed the entire country, so why import? We borrowed $940 million from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) yet spend so much outside to import rice. This is not sound economics,” Mr Asomaning said.
About 4,000 outgrowers are expected to feed the factory with paddy rice for production.
Mr Asomaning urged Ghanaians to patronise the Edwumawura Rice when it eventually got onto the market rather than the “sometimes 10-year-old imported rice.”
Pledge
A representative of the farmers, Mr Seth Kwame Darko, pledged their readiness to work hard to feed the mill with quality rice based on the training they had received from the Ministry of Food and Agriculture and some foreign development partners.
He mentioned undeveloped lands and the lack of machinery as some of the challenges the farmers encountered in their venture.
The Nkosuohene of Worawora, who is also the board chairman of the factory, Nana Owusu Afari, said the re-opening of the rice mill was the beginning of wealth creation in rice production enclaves in the country, especially Worawora and the Volta Region as a whole.
He noted that if resources were marshalled for the people to create wealth for themselves, there would be little state intervention.
Background
The factory was established in 1974 as part of the agricultural initiative, ‘Operation Feed Yourself’ (OFY), by the NRC government.
It collapsed after three years of operation. Properties, including equipment, were subsequently stolen and the warehouse was abandoned.