Pressure group, Patrons for Peace and Democracy (PPD), has said a claim by former Minister for Trade and Industry, Dr Ekwow Spio- Garbrah, that the John Mahama administration built 1000 factories is false.

“We consider Dr Spio-Garbrah’s comments as a desperate one with no iota of truth and we are calling on all well-meaning Ghanaians to treat it with the contempt it deserves,” the group said in a press statement.

The statement issued by PPD leader, Dr Richard Danso, challenged the former Minister to list the 1,000 factories he claimed the Mahama administration has established, their locations, the number of people have these factories employed, among others, to prove his claim.

“He should stop throwing dust into our eyes, because if you claim you have built 1000 factories that should automatically scale down the unemployment situation we have in this country, but what do we see now?” the press statement queried.

Media reports say the former Minister of Trades and Industry claimed recently that the National Democratic Congress (NDC) government under John Dramani Mahama built more factories than has been made known.

A report by 3news.com states: “He [Dr Spio-Garbrah] cites how most of the factories secured funding and support from government agencies like the National Board for Small-Scale Industries, Export Development Bank as well as Microfinance and Small Loans Centre (MASLOC). He said the New Patriotic Party’s One-District One Factory Programme pales in comparison to the over 1,000 factories created under former President Mahama.”

“If you are trying to look at whoever built factories and employed people, we did far more than anything the NPP has done so far,” he told 3news.com’s Komla Klutse on the sidelines of the 31st December commemoration in Winneba, Central Region last week.

According to Dr Spio-Garbrah, the difference between what happened under the NDC and what is happening under the NPP “is branding and sloganeering difference”.

But PPD said the claims by the former Minister are unsubstantiated.

“We consider his comments as irresponsible, because if you claim you have built 1000 factories, then the country should not be at where it is now,” the group said.

Read the full PPD press release below.