The Minister of Trade and Industry, Kobina Tahiru Hammond, has clarified payment concerns regarding the lease of the Komenda Sugar Factory to West Africa Agro Limited, an Indian-based firm.
Hammond explained that Ghana will not pay the company; instead, the country will receive an annual rent payment of over one million dollars.
His comments come in response to Yusif Sulemana, the Ranking Member on the Trade and Industry Committee, who had raised concerns that Parliament was not informed of the decision and claimed that the company would be paid $50,000 monthly for management services.
Speaking on Citi FM’s Eyewitness News, Hammond refuted these claims, stating that the company will pay Ghana a yearly rent, currently set at over one million dollars.
He further elaborated that this payment would be made annually for the duration of the lease, with an option for the company to extend the lease if they choose to do so.
“So at the commencement of the agreement to let them lease it, they would be paying us a yearly rent. The company will be paying us, I’ve said that it is over a million dollars. I’ve agreed on a figure which is, for now, a little more than one million dollars a year.”
“They will pay us for the year that they’ll be leasing it. At the end of it, if they are still interested, they could extend the period that they leased and keep on paying us the year’s rent until they give it back to us.”