UMB commits $10.8m in establishing 1D1F in Pru District - CEO

Chief Executive Officer for Universal Merchant Bank (UMB), John Awuah, has hinted that his bank is committing a total of $10.8 million towards the establishment of a district factory in the Pru district of the Brong Ahafo region.

According to him, it is a realization of a promise his outfit made to the President in 2017 when they visited him at the Jubilee House and committed funding space of about $100 million to help the deployment of the One District One Factory (1D1F) initiative.

The 1D1F initiative Mr Awuah said “is an initiative that needs all on board. It is not a government initiative but it is government working with the private sector and we as a bank standing in the middle so we can assist private promoters who want to take an advantage of government policy to enrich and to enhance the economic growth agenda we all wish for”.

Mr Awuah added that UMB as a bank is extremely excited at their involvement in the 1D1F policy implementation.

“The facility is going to be built under an Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) contract. So the Chairman of the Central starch Factory will just be walking into the factory when it is fully built with all the technical support that he needs to run for the first three years,” he explained.

“The funding will be in line with the disbursement plan as will be submitted by the borrower,” he stressed.

The UMB 1D1F signing ceremony with the Central Sugar Company Limited is a setup for establishing a sugar factory in the Pru district of the Brong Ahafo region.

The project according to UMB will create employment in the district.

The government’s 1D1F programme is aimed at establishing, at least, one factory or enterprise in each of the 216 districts of Ghana as a means of creating economic growth poles that would accelerate the development of those areas and create jobs for the teeming youth.

The policy aims to transform the structure of the economy from one dependent on production and export of raw materials to a value-added industrialised economy, driven primarily by the private sector.