By Andrew Cohen Amvesi
ARUA
Farmers in West Nile are at the verge of getting the first-ever high-capacity cassava processing factory in the sub-region.
The factory valued at US Dollars 1.5 million (about Shs5.7billion) is being constructed by Inter Link Inc at Enjeva, along Arua-Pakwach road in Ajia sub-county.
Upon completion, the factory will produce 4 tons of high-quality cassava flour per hour and up to 64 tons in a day.
According to Emmanuel Malish, the Managing Director of Inter Link Inc, the works on the factory have now reached 95 percent.
He says they are expecting to officially launch the facility in a month’s time, a development that will come with a number of job opportunities for the people of West Nile.
But with all this investment in place, Malish says the biggest challenge they are facing in completing the factory is unstable electricity supply in the area.
“A big factory like this has a lot of challenges but our main challenge now is the issue of power. There is a very huge power fluctuation on West Nile Rural Electrification Company (WENRECo) in Arua district in particular. Here at the site right now as I talk, there is no power since 11:00 am, there is no power and this is almost on a daily basis,” Malish said.
Malish added that: “Normally power goes off at least for two hours, four hours and sometimes up to six hours in a day. So, that is a very big challenge and as you know with all these big machines, we can’t be able to do work if there is no power. You can even see the team just sitting there because there is no power and we don’t have a back-up generator.”
He prayed to the government to consider expediting the process of connecting the region to the national grid so that they can find it easy to run the factory upon completion.
“My prayer to the government of Uganda is to speed up the connection of the national grid more especially to the West Nile sub region and also Arua district in particular such that many factories of this kind can come to this part of the region. You know, once there is constant power supply from the national grid, many investors can be able to come and put up not only this kind of facility but also may be other factories to make sure that the region develops,” Malish said during a visit made by officials from NARO Abi Zonal Agricultural Research and Development Institute (Abi ZARDI) to the factory on Friday June 7, 2024.
Malish’s concern was on Monday June 10, 2024 confirmed by Yovan Adriko, the area Vurra County Member of Parliament (MP) who said 90 percent of the people of Vurra are in darkness.
“I’m not happy because we are having a very serious challenge of inadequate power supply in West Nile. If you go to the grassroot, we are in darkness. In Vurra, 90 percent of people are in darkness because as a government, we borrowed a lot of money in the form of loan to connect West Nile to the national grid but up to now, our people are not benefiting from the money borrowed,” Adriko remarked.
He said the situation is worse when one wants to establish a factory in the region because there is no stable and industrious power to effectively put up and run such a factory.
“For our people to develop, my appeal to my government and the ministry of energy in particular is to come to the aid of our people by connecting the region to the national grid,” Adriko said.
Inter Link Inc is not the only factory facing power challenges in West Nile, many other factories such as Adrikos distilleries factory, a mattress manufacturing factory along transport road and a fruit processing factory along Rhino camp road and that in Yumbe district went through similar challenges while others are still grappling with the same problem.
However, during a recent public interface organized by Electricity Regulatory Authority (ERA) at Crane Resort Hotel in Arua city, Judith Wangoic, the WENRECo public relations officer, said of late, there has been fairly stable power supply in the region compared to those days.
She promised that with the coming of the national grid now in pipeline, cases of power blackouts in the region will be history.
But people of West Nile have increasingly become bitter following several unmaterialized promises made by the government to connect the region to the national grid.
The promises have on several occasions been made by Ruth Nankabirwa, the Minister of Energy and Mineral Development.
