A US$25 million starch factory project under construction in the Pru West District of the Bono East Region is expected to employ over 3,000 people, Stephen Jalulah, District Chief Executive, has said.

Mr. Jalulah, who was on a working visit to the factory site, said the project formed part of government’s ‘One-district, One-factory’ initiative. He said 300 of the workers would be permanent, 120 would work on the company’s cassava plantation, whilst the rest would be casual and indirect workers.

Speaking in an interview, Mr. Jalulah reiterated government’s commitment to improve the lives of the people in the Bono East Region with social intervention initiatives. He, therefore, appealed to traditional, religious and other mediatory bodies in the district to support the government.

In a related development, the engineer for the project, Emmanuel Kojo Boakye, revealed that about 70 percent of the work was complete, with the remainder going on as scheduled. He disclosed that logistics, tools, building materials, equipment and labour were all in place.

In order to ensure the smooth operation of the factory, he said a cassava plantation had been established by the company at Prang for easy access to the raw materials needed for starch production.

Over 1,000 acres of cassava had been planted this year to feed the starch factory, and a lot of the local people had so far been engaged to work on the cassava plantation.