The Minister-designate for Trade and Industry, Alan Kyerematen said the government’s One District One Factory initiative has created 139,331 jobs so far.
Mr. Kyerematen stated this on the floor of parliament when he appeared before the Appointments Committee today Friday, 26th February, 2021. “Through the intervention of 1D1F, 139,331 direct and indirect jobs have so far been created by the 76 companies that are already operational. 285,915 additional direct and indirect jobs are projected from the projects that are under construction,”
The 1D1F is a private sector-led initiative created for businesses to access funding from financial institutions and other support services from government agencies so as to establish factories in the various districts. It also seeks to change Ghana’s heavily dependency on import and export of raw material to one which is highly focused on manufacturing, value addition ( finished and semi-finished ) and exportation of the processed goods from raw materials found largely in the 275 Districts in the country.
He noted that aside the 76 companies that are currently operational, 107 of the projects are under construction and 49 of them are ready for construction to commence within the first half of the year.
He debunked the notion that the projects are already existing ones, saying “currently we have 232 1D1F projects at various stages of implementation. Contrary to comments that 1D1F is just an attempt to brush up on existing companies, if you look at the statistics, only 64 of the 232 companies are existing. 168 of them are new companies”.
Hon. Alan Kyerematen emphasised that the 1D1F initiative is one of the most revolutionary programmes since Ghana’s independence.
“It is appropriate for me to indicate that the One District, One Factory initiative, which has been led by the Ministry of Trade and Industry is one of the most revolutionary interventions to have been introduced in our country since independence. It goes to the core of bringing industry and development to the doorsteps of ordinary people and that is why we pursued this whole programme with aggression” he stressed.
Filed By Agaatorne Douglas Asaah / awakenewsroom.com