State of Ayensu Starch Factory blot on our collective conscience
The sight of the Ayensu Starch Factory at Awutu Bawjiase, locked up and overtaken by weeds, is a painful reminder of how underutilisation of state resources continues to fuel unemployment and poverty in many communities.
Once hailed as a beacon of rural development under the Presidential Special Initiative, the factory was designed to process cassava into industrial starch for both local consumption and export. But today, more than a decade after it ceased operations in 2011, it stands idle while hundreds of able-bodied youth in the community remain jobless.
The collapse of the factory has left Awutu Bawjiase and its surrounding towns despondent. Beyond the loss of direct jobs, the ripple effect on economic activities has been devastating. This is a factory which offered 150 direct employment opportunities to the people, with several others depending on it indirectly.
Indeed, the factory once operated its own cassava farms and employed over 150 people directly, in addition to engaging out-grower farmers and ancillary workers. Today, many of these individuals are unemployed, some forced into menial jobs, while others have slipped into destitution.
It is even more disheartening that valuable infrastructure, such as buses and machinery, acquired with taxpayers’ money, are wasting away in the open, rusting under the mercy of the weather. Not only is the situation an eyesore, but represents a failure to protect public investment and a blot on our collective conscience as a people.
Very worrying is the fact that this represents a squandered opportunity to industrialise agriculture and create sustainable jobs to reduce the teeming number of unemployed youth in the country, which keeps rising by every minute of the day.
We, on The Ghanaian Times, hold the view that allowing the Ayensu Starch Factory to rot is an indictment of successive governments and reflects poorly on our national resolve to industrialise and harness agriculture for development.
As a country, we cannot afford to be building factories with fanfare, only to abandon them within a decade, neither can we continue to rely on imported starch and related products while a facility with the potential to supply both local and international markets lies dormant.
Furthermore, it is incomprehensible that similar facilities established, owned and operated by private individuals with limited resources would be doing well while this particular one established with state resources would be allowed to go down the drain.
We therefore join the people of Awutu Bawjiase in calling for urgent government intervention to revive the factory. This, we believe, could be done through strategic public-private partnerships, recapitalisation, or re-engineering the business model to ensure sustainable supply of raw materials.
What is needed is political will, proper management, and a long-term strategy that shields such initiatives from partisan interference.
Beyond reviving the factory, there must also be a broader policy shift. Industrialisation cannot thrive if state-owned enterprises are left at the mercy of neglect. Structures must be put in place to ensure accountability and continuity across administrations so that projects meant to empower communities do not become white elephants.
The youth of Awutu Bawjiase deserve better than idleness and despair, and reviving the Ayensu Starch Factory would not only restore livelihoods but also send a strong signal that government is committed to job creation, rural development, and industrial growth.
The time to act is now.
