The opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) is accusing the government of hoodwinking Ghanaians with the one district, one factory promise to win the 2016 elections.

The NDC’s spokesperson for Trade, Murtala Mohammed says the Akufo-Addo government must “admit it goofed” by making a promise that was impossible to achieve under the circumstances.

He was reacting to what he believes is a U-turn by the government in the famous one district one factory promise made by the NPP in the heat of the 2016 elections.

In the hotly contested 2016 elections, the NPP made a number of promises including building one district in each district across the country.

There was also the promise of building one dam in every village in the northern region as well as providing each constituency with one million dollars for development projects.

These promises catapulted the NPP to power, beating the incumbent government with a landslide victory.

In his first year in government, the promise by the Akufo-Addo government to set up 51 factories out of a possible 216 was not fulfilled.

The president, however, dug the ground late last year for the Ekumfi Pineapple Processing Factory in what was expected to be the beginning of the implementation of the one district one factory policy.

President Akufo-Addo during the Ekumfi factory ground digging ceremony

The factory is expected to be a public-private partnership agreement with a $2 billion Exim bank loan facility.

Checks by Joy FM’s Central Region correspondent Richard Kojo Nyarko indicate that the factory owners are yet to build physical structures at the factory ground but have grown a lot of pineapple fruits to feed the factory when it is built.

Apart from the Ekumfi factory, the government has been silent on other factories it is working on despite its promise of building 51 factories in its first year.

On Wednesday, Information Minister Mustapha Hamid suggested the NPP government may not, in its four or eight years, be able to build factories in all the country’s districts as earlier promised.

He told host of Ekosii Sen programme on Asempa FM that the one district one factory policy is a vision that will be started by the Akufo-Addo government and be completed by future governments.

His comments have not gone down well with the NDC.

Murtala Mohammed told Joy News’ Emefa Apawu the one district one factory policy is a vision by Akufo-Addo which cannot be imposed on “successive governments.”

He said when that promise came, the then government pointed it out to Akufo-Addo who was then a candidate, that it was impossible to achieve the one district, one factory under the circumstances but he did not listen.

He said the government must admit it will not be able to fulfill the promise it made to Ghanaians.