Robert Ahomka Lindsay
Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry, Robert Ahomka Lindsay, has reiterated that the government is poised to deliver on the ‘One District, One Factory (1D1F)’ promise made to Ghanaians during the 2016 electioneering campaign.
To this end, he claimed the government had put some measures in place to ensure that by the end of 2020 the Volta Region will be having a factory each in all the 25 districts and municipalities – 11 of which are expected to be established by the end of this year (2018).
He said the 1D1F, which is on course, aims to establish at least, one enterprise in each of the now 254 districts of the country as a means of growing the economy, accelerating the development of those areas and creating jobs for the ever-growing unemployed youth. In all, over 291,000 jobs are expected to be created.
“To fast-track industrialisation in the country, the president has introduced the 1D1F programme to address the problem of unemployment in the country. It will create massive employment for the youth, and make significant progress in food production in the country,” he noted.
Mr. Ahomka made these known in Ho recently during the launched of the District Implementation Support Teams (DISTs) for the 1D1F policy. The teams are to facilitate the acquisition of land, registration and documentation, all needed infrastructure and logistics to ensure smooth take-off and running of the projects.
He added that the policy is also aimed at transforming the structure of the economy from export of raw materials to a value-added industrialised one, driven largely by the private sector.
“It is not the government that is building the factories but the private sector; the government will only assist the private sector in setting up these factories,” he stressed.
Mr. Ahomka also announced that an amount of GH¢2.5 billion had been committed by eight local banks to support the implementation of the programme.
He said out of the over 700 business plans received so far, over 90 percent are coming from Ghanaians. After a careful scrutiny of 618 of the plans by the technical support groups, 319 business plans have been certified to be worth investing into as they have the potential to succeed.
The defunct Darko Farms, which used to employ over 800 people, is expected to be revived with GH¢22 million, the deputy minister hinted.
Mr. Ahomka Lindsay, who acknowledged the significance of the role of traditional authorities to make the 1D1F successful, pleaded with them to assist with the provision of land to grow the raw materials to feed the factories as about 46 percent of the proposals are agro-processing related.
From Fred Duodu and Collins Anku, Ho (k.duodu@yahoo.com)