Deputy Trade and Industry Minister, Michael Okyere Baafi has disclosed that factories operating under the government’s flagship programme, One District, One factory (1D1F) have so far created over 150,000 jobs across the country.

According to him, the jobs created are in the fields of agribusiness, steel manufacturing and other areas.

“Mostly jobs that have been created are in the area of agribusiness, steel manufacturing and other areas that are also needed to boost the economic growth in the country. Almost about 151,000 jobs have been created which is made up of direct and indirect jobs. Direct jobs of 23,505 and indirect jobs which mostly come within the value chain and also in the area of procurement 130,277,” he said.

Speaking in an interview with JoyNews, the Deputy Minister said the government so far has established 106 factories at various districts out of the 275 expected to be established.

“We are working on the target as I am talking to you and we are almost through, but I am sure it is anything not less than what we have done because so far, 275 1D1F companies are at the various stages of completion, only 106 have been completed so the rest can generate a lot of jobs for the good people of Ghana.

Within the time of the inception of the policy. You know the policy was the flagship policy of the government. The policy started in 2018 and from that time to now, we are talking about a period of almost four years that is how far we have gone in the area of employment creation,” he stated.

He said the government has established a secretariat to oversee the implementation of the policy.

One District One Factory Programme is an initiative instituted by President Akuffo-Addo to address the challenges of slow economic growth at the district level through nationwide industrialization.

The programme is expected to facilitate the creation of between 7,000 to 15,000 jobs per district and between 1.5 million and 3.2 million nationwide by end of 2021.