Barely three months after JoyNews aired the “One District, Some Factories” Hotline documentary, government has started rolling out interventions aimed at resolving the challenges bedeviling the policy.

One of the factories that was badly affected was the Appeb cylinder manufacturing company limited located at Awutu Bereku.

Over 200,000 cylinders were locked up at the factory because the company was facing unhealthy competition from a foreign company.

The Hotline Documentary team went back to the factory to find out what has changed.

“My information was that the president watched the documentary and was not pleased at all with the states of the factories. He immediately commissioned some government officials to ensure that the challenges were resolved,” CEO of APPEB Cylinder manufacturing told the team.

The CEO of the company, Philip Assifuah, was distraught, broken and felt all hope was lost before the documentary was aired but today, he says the narrative has changed.

“In fact, your documentary that highlighted our plight got government to increase the energy in resolving our issues. We are grateful to JoyNews for the solid job you’re doing for mother Ghana,” he praised.

The workers are seen busily putting metal on metal to produce the cylinders.

The CEO, Philip Assifuah, could not thank JoyNews enough for producing the documentary that has changed a situation that affected the economies of the local community and the business of many.

The intervention by government has been like a pain relief.

“We thank the government for intervening in our situation. In fact, they had started doing something about our predicament but your documentary accelerated the efforts of government to resolve our challenge.

The workers the company contemplated laying off are now back in business. The stock level has gone down and the company is thinking of expansion.

Speaking on the Super Morning Show on Joy FM, Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry, Michael Okyere Baafi, says government, as a way to bolster Ghana’s industrial sector, will work to fix all the challenges that have been highlighted.

He revealed that the Ministry of Trade and Industry invited the companies for a discussion on the state of their companies.

“That was not all, we moved to the factories to understand first-hand what their issues were in other to appreciate them better. Following that, we have also engaged EXIM Bank as well. I am happy to report that things are moving on well,” he stated.

JoyNews has also been exploring other interventions government has put in place to bring the dead factories under government’s 1D1F back to life.

The One District, One Factory policy was launched with the vision of establishing at least one factory in every district of Ghana. By leveraging local resources and promoting value addition, the government seeks to promote industrialization, reduce unemployment, and enhance the overall socio-economic well-being of communities.