The Minister of Trade and Industry, Kobina Tahir Hammond has announced that an India-based firm set to take over the Komenda Sugar Factory on a lease will pay the government at least $1m annually as rent.

This announcement follows allegations from Minority members of Parliament that the government was considering signing a deal with West Africa Agro-Tech Company (WAATCO) without parliamentary approval. They also claimed that the government was expected to pay at least $50,000 to WAATCO.

Former Deputy Trade Minister and member of the Parliamentary Trades Committee, Murtala Mohammed, along with Yusif Sulemana, threatened to summon the Minister before Parliament.

Murtala Mohammed stated that "We will invite the minister to parliament, unfortunately, you know we are on recess, we will ensure the committee will invite the minister to come and explain to us. We will ensure the committee invites the minister to explain the situation. According to the agreement, he is supposed to pay $50,000 per month to WAATCO."

"This does not include additional fees; this is just the management fee. If there is no due process, we can assure them that an NDC administration will abrogate the contract,” Yusif Sulemana added.

• Read also: Ghana to earn over $1m annually from Komenda Sugar Factory lease – K.T. Hammond

In response, K.T. Hammond accused the Minority of misinforming the public, assuring that a deal has not yet been finalised with WAATCO.

Speaking to JoyNews, Hammond clarified, "We have invited some people to see what can be done to get the factory running, but no one was interested."

"WAATCO has requested a leasehold of our facility and equipment. The Komenda Sugar Factory is 100% Ghana government property, and I haven’t signed anything yet. We have not paid them anything. We are offering them the use of the facility under the condition that they pay us. We are negotiating for them to pay us over one million dollars annually. Although we haven’t agreed on the final figure, it is almost certain it will be more than one million dollars per year.”