About 19 business plans have received all the necessary approvals waiting to take off as part of the ‘One district One factory’ program in the Greater Accra region.

These include businesses in agro-processing, manufacturing, services, among others.

This was disclosed by Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry, Ahomka Lindsay after launching the District Implementation Teams for the various districts in the region.

He said the government is engaging other financial institutions on the remaining business plans to ensure that it delivers on its promise of providing every district with at least one factory by 2020.

The Ministry of Trade and Industry and the ‘One district One factory’ secretariat received about 700 business proposals from the ten regions of the country with the majority in agro-processing.

According to Mr Ahomka Lindsay, the government has approved 50 of these business proposals in the Greater Accra region, out of which 19 have been scrutinized and received all the necessary financial approvals for take-off.

“We have confidence in delivering on our promise of at least one factory in every district of the country,” he said.

The districts that received the approvals include Accra Metropolis, Kpone Katanmanso, Shai Osudoku, Ngleshie Amanfrom, Ningo Prampram, Ada East among others.

On a question of receiving the $2 billion Chinese facilities for the programme, he said discussions are still ongoing and other foreign partners like the UK, Indian and Italian governments have made commitments to support the programme.

The District Information Officer of the Shai Osudoku district, Beatrice Arthur also confirmed that the district has received and approved three manufacturing and energy processing companies.

She is optimistic that the committee’s key role in the process will yield the needed results.

“We have one meat processing factory, one in energy processing and also a sugar processing factory which are taking steps to commence as soon as possible,” she said.

The Implementation Support team is expected to help the investors in the various districts to deal with issues of land acquisition and other certification processes.