After three years of operation, the One District One Factory, the industrialisation agenda of President Akufo-Addo, has yielded about 170 factories at different stages and status.
According to a document sourced to the 1D1F Secretariat listing factories, their locations and status, a total of about 170 factories are currently at various stages of completion such as, operating as new factories, operating as revived or expanded factories, new factories under construction, as well as small scale processing factories under construction.
Out of this number, a total of 28 factories have been completed and operating fully as direct 1D1F projects, while 31 factories, under same new 1D1F factories, are under construction.
In another classification of operational factories under 1D1F, government has partnered the private sector to either revive or expand 48 existing companies, thus bringing the total number of operational companies (directly under 1D1F and private partnership to 76).
While the 1D1F seeks to build new factories, it also focuses on helping small-scale entrepreneurs to advance their traditional processing of food and other items across the county.
In this regard, the government, through the support of the AfDB is constructing 63 small scale processing factories across the country to aid local entrepreneurs in areas such as processing and packaging of gari, soya, palm oil, rice, etc.
President Akufo-Addo prior to being elected in 2016, promised a bold industrialisation drive to build factories across districts in the country, taking into consideration market and proximity of raw materials to create employment for the youth.
Despite the initiative being tagged One District One Factory, (1D1F) officials have explained that in neighbouring districts where particular raw materials are common, one factory is centrally located to cater for such districts instead of building same factories in each district with similar considerations.
Source: www.graphic.com.gh
