The Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta says government has identified some strategic industries to anchor the growth of the Ghanaian manufacturing sector.

This, the Finance Minister says, will bring about an increase in export revenue.

Addressing Parliament during his presentation of the government’s Budget Statement and Economic Policy for the 2024 Financial Year on Wednesday, November 15, 2023, Mr. Ofori-Atta explained that these strategic anchor industries will be complemented by government's One District, One Factory' programme.

He said the project will fall under the Ghana Free Zones Authority (GFZA) and the Ghana Export Promotion Agency (GXPA).

"Ghana aims to be a regional manufacturing hub for West Africa. The 15-month growth strategy leverages on the 1D1F and Free Zones projects to attract investments into the industries and create massive job opportunities in Ghana," he added.

Highlighting some of the benefits of the project, Mr. Ofori-Atta said some 64 additional companies will be licensed by the GFZA by the end of December 2024.

"This will increase the number of companies from 207 to 271. This is expected to increase export earnings from US$1.8billion (indicated year) to US$2.19billion (2024).

Again, over 50000 jobs are expected to be created by the end of 2024 while earnings from non-traditional export (NTE) will increase from US$3.51billion(2022) to US$4.8billion (2024).

"Volume of NTEs is expected to increase from 3.46m mt(2022) to 4.2m mt(2024); 20,000 additional jobs will be created by the NTEs companies by the end of 2024," the Finance Minister said.

Meanwhile, some 50 companies will be given support by government to access African markets under the AfCTA Agreement.