Ghana takes a major step toward industrialisation as Olam Agri commissions a $40 million pasta manufacturing plant in Tema.
For years, Ghana has been spending tens of millions of dollars importing a product it can now make at home. That reality shifted this week with the official launch of Olam Agri’s $40 million pasta manufacturing plant at Kpone, near Tema, marking one of the most tangible examples of industrial policy delivering real results in recent Ghanaian history.
The plant carries a production capacity of 60,000 metric tonnes and is designed to meet up to 40 percent of Ghana’s total pasta demand. To appreciate the scale of that achievement, consider that Ghana spent an estimated $140 million on pasta imports between 2021 and 2024 alone, making it the second largest pasta importer on the African continent. Every tonne now produced at the Kpone facility is a direct saving on that bill.
Olam Agri’s country head Baibhav Biswas set the tone at the commissioning ceremony. “From today, every packet of pasta consumed in Ghana can be produced locally by Ghanaian talent, on Ghanaian soil,” he said. Beyond the symbolism, his words pointed to something more structural, that local manufacturing builds technical expertise, strengthens domestic capacity and ensures that the value created by consumer spending circulates within the Ghanaian economy rather than flowing abroad.
The project was completed ahead of its 18-month construction target, which in itself is a statement about the seriousness with which this investment was pursued. It has already delivered 300 direct jobs and close to 1,000 indirect employment opportunities, with further economic activity expected as the plant ramps up to full production.
The Kpone facility will produce fortified pasta products including premium spaghetti, macaroni and a range of other varieties, all manufactured using advanced processing technology. It sits alongside Olam Agri’s existing operations in Ghana, which include the country’s largest wheat milling facility in Tema and a portfolio of agricultural businesses covering rice, cocoa, grains and other staples. The company is not a new entrant to Ghana. This investment deepens a relationship that has grown more confident over time.
Olam Agri group chief executive Sunny Verghese made that point directly. “Our confidence in the nation has grown year after year, and the investment we are commissioning today reflects our belief in Ghana as a hub for growth, trade and sustainable value,” he said.
Trade and Industry Minister Elizabeth Ofosu-Adjare was equally direct about what the factory means in economic terms. “Every metric tonne of pasta produced in Tema represents import substitution, a dollar preserved in our foreign reserves and a new employment opportunity for Ghanaians,” she stated. She also urged Olam Agri to work with Ghana’s crop research institutions on developing wheat varieties suited to local cultivation, a step that would tie the plant more deeply into the domestic agricultural value chain and support the government’s Feed the Industry programme.
The Olam plant arrives alongside a broader surge in industrial groundbreaking across the country. President Mahama has recently initiated construction of a $250 million float glass manufacturing plant at Shama in the Western Region, expected to rank among the largest glass facilities in Africa upon completion, and commissioned a $110 million calcined clay cement plant at the Tema Free Zones Enclave, built around technology that reduces clinker usage and cuts carbon emissions in cement production.
President Mahama, who served as special guest of honour at the commissioning, was measured but pointed in his assessment. “Our policies only matter when they lead to actual factories, real jobs and tangible production on the ground,” he said. The Olam plant, by that standard, is exactly what policy is supposed to look like.
Jaysonlive Analysis
What makes the Olam Agri story worth paying close attention to is not just the factory itself but what it represents as a model. A private sector investor, backed by a conducive policy environment, has delivered a major manufacturing facility ahead of schedule, in a sector where Ghana was bleeding foreign exchange year after year. If that model can be replicated across other import-heavy categories, the cumulative impact on Ghana’s trade balance, employment figures and industrial capacity could be transformative.
The 24-Hour Economy agenda and the broader industrialisation push currently underway will be judged not by announcements but by the number of factories that actually come online and operate at scale. The Kpone pasta plant is one that did. More are needed.
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