1D1F: All districts have factories – Coordinator

National Project Coordinator for One District, One Factory (1D1F) Programme Gifty Ohene-Konadu has revealed that there is a factory in each district in Ghana under the project.

She told Alfred Ocansey on the Sunrise morning show on 3FM Thursday, August 20 that some of the factories have been completed whereas others are at various stages of completion.

The 1D1F is the initiative of the Akufo-Addo administration as part of his effort to move the Ghanaian economy from export-driven to value addition.

The government received flak from critics, mainly the largest opposition party, the National Democratic Congress (NDC), for failing to ensure that all the districts have their factories.

However, Ms Ohene-Konadu explained that “immediately this policy was announced so many banks came to us to support this government initiative.

“So we sat down with the banks on this. We recommend the private sector person to one of the banks who accepted to work with us, so if you have a good business plan we will also look at it and then the banks will give you the necessary funding.

“They will look further and analyze your business plan and see whether truly it is a good one by their standard before they invest or give you a loan for your project.”

When asked how many factories have been built so far, she said: “I always say I am not comfortable talking about numbers because we always say that they are at various stages of completion.

“If you look at the business plans with me, every district has business plans here but they are all at different stages, so if you ask me I will tell you that all the districts have factories.

“We are going to commission Ekumfi Factory. It has started production already but we are going to commission it.

“Government has provided incentives for these factories. We have waived taxes on all machines that are imported into the country, provided tax free holidays and quite a number of them.”