Some chiefs and influential leaders in South, North and Central Tongu Districts of the Volta Region have appealed to the Akufo-Addo-led government to revive the Aveyime Rice Project, now Prairie Volta Limited (PVL).

The chiefs who spoke with Today on condition of anonymity lamented that the collapse of the once vibrant rice company has badly affected livelihoods and socio-economic activities in the above areas.

When Today visited the project site at Mafi-Aloryi on Tuesday, April 11, 2017 to ascertain the facts on the collapsed project, the chiefs and some affected workers from Tefle, Sokpui, Juapong, Aveyime, Battor, Mepe, Adidome, Volor, Dorfor, Dokpo, Mafi-Aloryi, Sogakope, Bakpa, Mafi-Kumase and Mafi-Dove stated that the collapse of the project has led to joblessness.

They stressed that the three districts need government’s support to revive the defunct company.

According to them, the revamp of the company would complement the president’s vision to increase rice production in the country.

They also indicated that the revival of the company would generate employment in the three districts.

Some of the affected persons who could not hide their frustrations blamed the National Democratic Congress (NDC) government for the collapse of the company, stressing that the cause of the collapse was the many years of neglect by the largest stakeholder in the project which is government of Ghana.

Government of Ghana appears not to care about the project after an amount of US$4.6 million was pumped into the company in 2011 through a loan granted by the ADB.

Today’s investigations also established that sixty per cent of the US$4.6 million was used to purchase equipment including tractors, new rice polishers, spare parts to refurbish existing machines and two Nissan pick-up vehicles, while the remaining 40 per cent was used to prepare the land, purchase seeds and other inputs.

Our investigations further revealed that an amount of GH¢3 million was lost in revenue due to the unavailability of combine harvesters because of alleged theft of spare parts and the refusal of ADB to advance US$50,000 for the emergency importation of parts from the United States of America (USA).