COVID, Russia-Ukraine war led to struggle of some 1D1F factories – Trade Minister

Minister of Trade and Industry, Kobina Tahir Hammond, has attributed the almost collapsing factories under government's One District One Factory programme to the outbreak of the global pandemic - coronavirus - and Russia-Ukraine war.

Speaking in an interview on TV3's Ghana Tonight Show, he said these struggling factories were however picking up slowly and business would soon be brisk.

KT Hammond said, “To answer your question they are doing very well, not to say they are doing 100 percent well, not 100 percent because they are collapsing or falling out…[but because] we had COVID and Ukraine."

“My friends from the other aisle [NDC lawmakers] don’t want to hear the President talk about Covid and Russian-Ukraine war but they are an inevitability. In any political and economic context, you would have to mention this double whammy of a disaster because they haven’t helped anybody. So in the context of this, some of the [factories] have struggled a bit [but] they are picking up and doing what it takes,” he stated.

The Minister of Trade and Industry stressed that an amount of GH¢14 million from Afreximbank has been disbursed to 48 companies.

He explained that the 1D1F programmes which seeks to establish a factory in all districts across the country will boost local production.

This, he said will subsequently improve government's industrialization agenda.

It would be recalled that President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo on August 25, 2017, launched the 1D1F programme at Ekumfi in the Central region.

He then cut sod for the commencement of the first factory, Ekumfi Fruits and Juices.

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