Today in History, exactly 54 years ago, on 5th February 1966, Dr Kwame Nkrumah commissioned the Aboso Glass Factory Which cost 9,000,000 Cedis.
Aboso is a town near Tarkwa, and is the capital of Wassa West district, a district in the
Western Region of Ghana. Aboso is the 78th most populous settlement in Ghana, with a population of about 9,945 people.
At the Ghana census of 18 March 1984, there were 4,700 inhabitants living in the town.
The Factory was once a vibrant company which manufactured and supplied
Glasses and bottles for the beverage industry in Ghana.Video Player00:0000:45
The Glass factory had a yearly output of 18 million bottles, 2 million units of tableware and
8 to 10 million square feet of sheet glass and louvre glass.
Aboso Glass Factory employed about 500 Ghanaians in its early operations.
The Collapse of the factory
However, the Aboso Glass factory has been closed and has not been operating for so many
years now due to lack of machinery, maintenance and capital.
Despite this, just 19 days after Kwame Nkrumah commissioned the Aboso Glass factory, he
was overthrown as president of the republic of Ghana on February 24, 1966.
From the north to the south across the east to the west of the country, hundreds of
factories ranging from cement, steel, roofing sheets, glass, rubber, jute, matches, sugar,
paper and leather to rattan products, were set up under Dr Kwame Nkrumah.
Nkrumah’s intention was to make Ghana an industrialized country in order to break away
from relying too much on imports, therefore, he established factories but 50 years on, all
the factories have collapsed due to poor management after his overthrown.
After many years of routine promises from past governments to revive the Glass
Factory, the state of the factory remain same since the promises did not see the light of day.
Source: ghanaianmuseum