The Upper East Regional Minister-designate, Paulina Patience Abayaye has promised to revive a defunct tomato factory at Pwalugu when she is confirmed and sworn into office as a Minister.

Appearing before the Appointments Committee of Parliament on Monday, the Upper East Regional Minister hopeful, spoke highly of the region and how rich it is in natural resources.

She said, the Upper East Region is blessed with arable land and farmers within the region are into the cultivation of variety of vegetables, therefore, the Pwalugu Tomato factory will be revamped and rebranded to process the different vegetables.

Paulina Patience Abayaye is optimistic the rebranding of the factory to “Pwalugu vegetable processing factory’’ will boost production and in turn, rake in good income for the country.

‘’We all know that Pwalugu Tomato Factory is down now but there is a committee that has been set by my predecessor Honorable Rockson Bukari to look into the viability of the Pwalugu tomato factory and Zuarungu meat factory,” she revealed.

She added, “This group is thinking we will have to diversify that factory to produce not just tomatoes but vegetables so we won’t call it Pwalugu tomato factory again, we will call it Pwalugu vegetable processing factory.’’

Background

The Pwalugu Tomato Factory established by Ghana’s first president, Dr Kwame Nkrumah has been left to rot.

The Pwalugu Tomato factory was set up at the Northern Region of Ghana to process tomato into puree and paste for the local market as well as for export.

But sadly the factory has not been in use for a long while, however, statistics available indicate that Ghana spends $100 million annually to import tomato paste.