Alan Kyeremanten
India is seeking to adopt ‘One District, One Factory (1D1F), the flagship industrial programme of President Akufo-Addo.
Trade and Industry Minister, Alan Kyeremanten, made this known yesterday while delivering an update report on the 1D1F initiative at the Ministry of Information.
He said he received information last year during his visit to India that the Asian giant wanted to also implement the 1D1F programme, saying “for once the big boys are also copying from us.”
He stated that Germany and US have also expressed interest in taking part in the 1D1F programme, with the US EXIM Bank signing a $300 million facility recently to support the initiative.
Chinese Support
He said a number of private Chinese financial institutions have pledged to make $400 million available as financial support towards the implementation of 1D1F.
Mr. Kyeremanten said that the Chinese financial institutions have identified their Ghanaian counterparts to lend money for the 1D1F programme.
He listed the local banks identified by the Chinese institutions as GCB, Ghana EXIM Bank, Ecobank and Stanbic Bank.
According to him, the Chinese institutions would lend $400 million to the local banks for onward lending to the 1D1F players.
The 1D1F initiative, which is widely advertised during the 2016 election campaign, is a major pillar of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government’s economic growth, diversification and job creation agenda.
The minister reiterated that the 1D1F initiative is not about setting up of state-owned enterprises.
He said contrary to the ‘misconception’ that the government is supposed to set up public enterprises under the initiative, the government would only support private players to set up enterprises in the districts so that more people would find meaningful jobs to do.
According to him, 1D1F is a private sector led initiative being facilitated by the government.
The minister said that as part of the facilitation, government would help provide tax incentives, facilitate credits, among others, to encourage more investors to set up factories in the districts.
Reacting to arguments on why the government was supporting companies in existence through the 1D1F programme, the minister said that there was nothing wrong in helping firms to grow.
He stated that about 57 1D1F businesses were currently in operation, with 22 under construction.
Mr. Kyeremanten indicated that there were a total of 181 1D1F projects, 129 of which were new, with the rest as existing firms.
By Melvin Tarlue