Ken Ofori-Atta
Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta on Wednesday announced that government would allocate a minimum of GH¢2 million to each district next year for the implementation of the ‘One District, One Factory’ initiative.
“I am by this challenging the local authorities in the various districts, together with the private sector, to take full advantage of these funds,” he disclosed.
Mr Ofori-Atta, who was presenting the 2018 national budget statement to Parliament, mentioned that about 250,000 direct and indirect jobs were expected to be collectively generated from some 191 district enterprise project projects selected to be established for some 102 districts next year.
According to him, the projects were selected after the Ministry of Trade and Industry completed technical, financial and commercial viability analysis of 462 proposals tendered for government’s ‘One district, One factory’ inititative this year.
“191 projects have been appraised and selected for implementation. 104 of these companies will be operating in the Agribusiness sector, 20 in the Meat and Poultry sector; 40 in the Construction and Building Materials sub-sector and the remaining 27 are businesses in the cosmetics and pharmaceuticals sectors.
He gave the regional breakdown of the companies as follows: Ashanti (35); Brong Ahafo (19); Central (21); Eastern (34); Northern (17); Upper East (4); Upper West (5); Western (10) and Volta (18).
The ‘One District, One Factory’ programme was launched by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo on 25th August, 2017.
Stimulus package for industry
The Finance Minister revealed that a stimulus programme was being designed to support viable existing local companies that were currently distressed or were facing operational challenges but were deemed viable.
To date, he said, over 350 applications from business operators have been received, out of which 80 were assessed to be eligible for support in the first phase of the programme. The second phase will involve the provision of a stimulus package consisting of technical and financial support to these eligible companies.
Forty-eight of the beneficiary firms operate in Agri-Business; 10 in Chemicals/Pharmaceuticals; 3 in Electrical and Electronics; 5 in Garment and Textiles; 6 in building materials; 6 in plastics and packaging and 2 in Services.
Entrepreneurship
“The Ministry for Special Development Initiatives advertised and received 5,500 applications from young Ghanaian entrepreneurs. These applications are being vetted and successful entrepreneurs will receive business advisory services. About 500 of these will receive financial support in addition. Each enterprise will employ a minimum of 12 persons.”
Planting for Food and Jobs
He said government’s ‘Planting for Food and Jobs’ programme, which was launched by the President on 19th April, 2017, has chalked major successes.
These include the distribution of about 80,000 bags of cereal and legume seeds, 36,000 vegetable seeds and about 2,000,000 bags of fertilizer; recruitment of 822 agricultural extension personnel and the establishment of a taskforce to assess status of warehouses and storage facilities nationwide for rehabilitation.
There would be the creation of market opportunities for farmers by linking them with institutional buyers such as School Feeding Programme and Prisons Service, as well as the electronic registration of over 34,000 farmers out of more than 200,000 manually registered.
By Samuel Boadi