The Minister-designate for Trade and Industry, Alan John Kyerematen has revealed that a total of 76 factories are currently in operation under the Akufo-Addo’s flagship “One District One Factory Initiative” (1D1F).

According to him, 107 factories are currently under construction out of the total 232 projects at various stages of implementation since 2017.

Out of 232 factories, Alan Kyerematen said 64 of the projects under the 1D1F initiative were existing companies and 158 of them are new factories.

Alan Kyerematen who served as the Minister of Trade, Industry, Private Sector Development (PSD) and the Presidential Special Initiatives (PSI), under the President Kufuor-led NPP government told Parliament’s Appointments Committee on Friday.

“Currently we have 232 1D1F projects that are at various stages of implementation and contrary to some of the comments that have been made that 1D1F is an attempt to just to rush up existing companies, indeed while the program implementation framework allows for existing companies to be 1D1F companies but if you look at the statistics out of the 232 companies only 64 are existing companies and 168 are new companies,” former Ghana’s Ambassador to the United States stated.

“The breakdown is as follows, projects currently operating as 1D1F is 76, projects under construction is 107 and then projects ready to commence construction within the first half of this year (2021) is 49,” Alan Kyerematen said.

Responding to the breakdown of companies built by the Minority Leader, Haruna Iddrisu, the minister-designate for Trade and Industry said “so far, out of the 232 projects, 56% are agro-processing projects, 22% general manufacturing, 5% meat processing, primary agriculture is 4% and the other industrial enterprises which constitute 13%”.

The New Patriotic Party (NPP) led by the then-candidate, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo in their 2016 manifesto promised to collaborate with the private sector to construct factories within the 216 districts as part of plans to industrialise and transform the Ghanaian economy, however, some districts across the country are yet to benefit from the government’s noble initiative.

Commenting on the progress of the initiative, the Minister-designate for Trade and Industry said the government is on course to deliver on its mandate, adding that a total of 49 factory projects are expected to kick off within the first quarter of 2021.

Alan Kyerematen said that committee that under the 1D1F initiative, a total of 139,331 direct and indirect jobs have been created by the 76 companies which are currently in operation.

He further added that 285,915 additional direct and indirect jobs are projected to be created from the projects currently under construction.

“Through the intervention of the 1D1F 139,331 direct and indirect jobs have been created by the 76 companies that are already operational 285,915 additional direct and indirect jobs are projected from the projects that are under construction,” Alan Kyerematen justifies the impact of the factories built on the Ghanaian economy.

The Minister-designate said through the 1D1F initiative, government has been able to mobilise ₵2.3 billion from local financial institutes and the government has provided interest subside support of ₵213 million to de-risk the project for the banks to become more profitable.

Alan Kyerematen told the Appointments Committee that government through Parliament has granted a total of ₵603 million as import duty exemptions to 37 1D1F companies.