The Bui Power Authority (BPA) has released 16,000 hectares of land to produce sugarcane to feed the Bui Sugar Factory in the district.

The Banda District Chief Executive (DCE) in the Bono Region, Emmanuel Akone, who disclosed this said the district would soon become an industrial hub.                                    

"BPA has given out part of the land they took from the chiefs of Banda to the investors, Bui Sugar Factory Limited, to implement this flagship project," he stated.

He said workers have just concluded ploughing of 125 hectares of the land whilst sugarcane has been planted on 50 hectares out of the 125 hectares ploughed.                       

Emmanuel Akone made this known in an interview with Wenchi-based Radio West Africa in the Bono regional town of Wenchi.

He stated that the investors are making sure the needed raw materials are available before building the factory structures.

According to him, this is to avoid insufficient or irregular supply of sugarcane that could affect the production capacity at the factory.                                  

The Banda DCE was optimistic that the sugarcane plantation could feed the factory all year round during full-scale production.                   

He further explained that there is an irrigation dam that will provide water to feed the sugarcane farms.                   

"The most interesting part of this project is that when completed, the factory will produce sugar whilst the by-products will be used to manufacture ethanol and fertilizer," the Banda DCE added.                   

Currently, the Bui Sugar Factory Limited has employed 301 people to work on the sugarcane farm.