1D,1F Update: 118,811 direct jobs created from 76 factories under operation

Mr Alan John Kojo Kyerematen, the Minister of Trade and Industry, has said 118, 811 direct jobs have been created from the 76 One-District, One-Factory (1D,1F) companies that are currently under operation.

Additionally, 38,532 direct jobs will be created from over 100 1D,1F companies under construction and generate additional 247,383 indirect jobs upon completion.

Mr Kyerematen, who announced this at the second edition of the Nation Building Updates in Accra, said currently a total of 232 1D,1F projects were ongoing of which 168 were new factories and 64 existing ones that received capital injection.

The Minister said 13 1D,1F projects were in the pipeline with financial institutions going through their credit appraisal system.

The event was held on the theme, "Industrializing Ghana; One District at a Time".

The Minister said the government was able to leverage on the investments made in the 1D, 1F projects to get local banks to provide GHc2.3 billion liquidity support.

Consequently, he said, government-subsidized the interest rate of the banks with GHc205 million duty exemption.

Mr Kyerematen was of the conviction that the 1D1F initiative was pivotal towards the country's structural industrial transformation.

It was about time the nation moved from an agrarian economy to an industrialised one with import substitution products, geared towards achieving the agenda of Ghana beyond aid and becoming self-sufficient, the Minister emphasised.

The One-District, One-Factory initiative is a private sector-led programme envisioned by the Akufo-Addo-led government aimed at creating a conducive environment for viable businesses to access funding from financial institutions and support services from government agencies to establish factories across the country.

The flagship programme seeks to change the structure of the country's economy from import and borrowing to export of goods and services, manufacturing and value addition.

The programme is “here to stay” and we should be more inward-looking so that we would be self-sufficient in producing goods and services locally, the Minister stressed.