Mansa Sugar plant to commence operations

The 50 million U.S dollar Mansa Sugar plant in Chembe district – Luapula Province is set to commence operations by August this year.

Company Managing Director Natarajan Kumar says 20-million U.S dollars has so far been injected in the sugar cane plantation and construction of the processing plant.

He has however projected that 35-million dollars will be injected by the end of the year despite the total investments being projected around 50-million dollars at full capacity.

Mr. Kumar notes that so far 800 hectares of cane has been grown.

He says about 800d jobs have been created at the construction stage of which 3-hundred are direct jobs.

Mr. Kumar says 500 full time jobs will be created when the processing starts.

And Minister of Lands and Natural Resources Jean Kapata who recently toured the plant said Mansa Sugar is a result of the Multi Facility Economic Zones -MFEZ- concepts that government is using to attract investments and create jobs.

Ms Kapata has appealed for more investors to take interest in Luapula province because of its vast arable land.