The Industrial and Commercial Workers Union (ICU) has called on the government to, as a matter of urgency, reactivate the Pwalugu Tomato Factory and bailout PBC PLC to enable them to realise their economic potential and fulfil the purpose for which they were established.

Their revival, it said, was critical to helping boost the national economy and aid in the government’s resetting agenda. 

In the case of the Pwalugu Tomato Factory, for instance, the ICU said its reactivation was to create employment for the unemployed youth and also save the nation the huge foreign exchange used to import tomatoes into the country.

For PBC PLC, it said it needed an urgent bailout to enable it to bounce back into business.

The General Secretary of the ICU, Morgan Ayawine, said that at the Northern and Upper East regional conferences of the union last Thursday and Friday.

The events are a prelude to the 12th Quadrennial Delegates’ Conference of the Union.

Addressing delegates in Bolgatanga, Mr Ayawine said the initiative by the government to construct a dam at Pwalugu in addition to existing dams in the Upper East Region would greatly aid and improve agricultural venture, among other economic activities in the region.

Unemployment

He said the growing phenomenon of unemployment in the country, which was the cause of unbridled youth migration called for serious attention and action to stem this tide to enable the youth to remain in the rural areas to contribute to the socio-economic development of the country.

The panacea for that situation, the ICU General Secretary said, lay in the active creation of viable and sustainable industries to create employment for the youth.

“So many industries and businesses have been left to go fallow.

This is a serious concern of the union, as it is exacerbating the already precarious unemployment situation in the country. 

“A typical example is the Pwalugu Tomato Factory in the Upper East Region, which has been abandoned over the years, whilst the indigenes of the region remain unemployed,” he emphasised.

PBC PLB

Speaking in Tamale early on Thursday, Mr Ayawine said the operations of PBC PLC had been seriously handicapped over the years, due to a lack of funds to conduct its business i.e. buying cocoa beans and shea nut.

Undoubtedly, PBC PLC was one of the state-owned enterprises that was financially distressed and needed urgent resourcing to make it once more viable and profitable as in time past, to bring relief to farmers and the workers whose fate had been hanging in the balance for a long time now.

“For this once vibrant and profitable economic business set up with the nation’s scarce resources to collapse and pass into oblivion is a tragic commentary on the nation’s ability to create and maintain a sustainable national asset.

“In this light, we wish to use this platform to appeal to the government to urgently bailout PBC PLC to enable it to bounce back to business,” he said.

Mr Ayawine said rural and community banks had over the years helped to grow and develop rural industries, commerce and service and brought tremendous economic relief to communities where mainstream banks did not exist and that it was for this reason that fiscal policies must be geared to supporting the rapid and sustainable growth of those banks.

However, he said some of the fiscal policies seemed to create and work against the growth and sustainability of the rural and community banks.