Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, vice presidential candidate of the New Patriotic Party, has once again chided the ruling government for focusing more on gaining propaganda value to the detriment of the real work which would see improvements in the lives of the Ghanaian.

The NPP running mate made this known after his visit to the Pwaalugu Tomato Factory (Northern Star Tomato factory) revealed that all operations at the factory had seized despite claims by the NDC administration that it has revived the company.

Dr. Bawumia visited the tomato factory premises in Pwalugu on Wednesday during a tour of the Talensi constituency to acquaint himself with happenings at the factory.

The visit revealed that the claims by the ruling government in 2010 to have revived the factory and other claims that the factory was producing 500,000 metric tons of tomatoes a day were wholly false as production had seized completely while equipments imported under the NPP administration had been left to the mercies of the weather.

Finding the premises in a state of disrepair and abandonment with no workers, raw materials or processed tomatoes in sight, Dr. Bawumia stated “I came to see how work was going on here. To my surprise, I found that this factory was not working. We were told in 2010 that this factory had been rehabilitated with an investment of 1.7million dollars and that this factory was now producing 500,000 metric tons of tomatoes. What we are seeing, however, is that it is not working, no workers are here and this factory as we can see has more propaganda value for the government than economic value for the country”

Dr. Bawumia who visited the Produce Buying Company Shea Nut factory in Buipe a few months ago to find a similar situation bemoaned the situation where the government apparently was more interested in doing propaganda with such factories and called for a more serious approach to creating industries that would lead to numerous job opportunities among other economic benefits.

“I found a similar situation with the sheanut factory in Buipe which was commissioned about 4 months ago and has still not produced an ounce of sheanut and I think it is time we have a very serious approach to our manufacturing and value addition. We should focus less on the propaganda value of these projects and more of the economic value to the people in terms of job creation and exports” he said.

Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia visited the Talensi constituency on the third day of his Upper East regional tour.