WA, July 20, GNA - The Wa Municipal Assembly has provided 8,000 Ghana cedis as its initial contribution towards the operations of the Fruit Juice Factory at Wa. The factory, which was inaugurated in March 2008, is yet to begin production due to a combination of factors that include some administrative hurdles involving registration and certification, the absence of a business plan and a Board of Directors. The factory is collaboration between IEPAR city in Belgium and the assembly.

Mr. Duogu Yakubu, the Municipal Chief Executive, who was addressing an ordinary meeting of the assembly at Wa, expressed dissatisfaction with the way the factory was hurriedly inaugurated when the ground work was not fully prepared. "We took delight in hurriedly inaugurating the project when the ground work was not adequately prepared. In fact there is more to it than meets the eye as we did not provide answers to questions before moving to tell the world that we have arrived." He said there was no registration and certification by the Food and Drugs Board, no permit from the Environmental Protection Agency, no a certification from the Registrar General's Department and no permit from the Ghana National Fire Service.

Efforts to begin production were also frustrated by the disconnection of electricity to the facility by the Northern Electricity Department of the Volta River Authority on the excuse that the sub-station on which the factory drew its power had technical defects and had the potential to damage the power system. Mr. Yakubu said the assembly had appointed a nine-member Board of Directors for approval by the members of the assembly, prepared an economic blue print for the factory and engaged an accounting and auditing firm to work on the company's registration. 20 July 09