Minister of Trade and Industry, Alan Kyerematen
The Minister of Trade and Industry, Alan Kyerematen, has said 104 companies are in operation under the One District, One Factory (1D1F) programme, out of 278 total projects.
Presenting a statement to lawmakers at Parliament House in Accra on Wednesday, he said 150 factories are under construction and 24 are at the mobilisation stage.
Out of the 278 total projects, 165 are new factories, while 113 are existing factories that have received support under the programme.
In terms of the sectoral breakdown, 40.6 percent are agro-processing companies, 43.9 percent are other manufacturing companies, and 7.9 percent are meat processing facilities.
The factories in operation have created 150,975 direct and indirect jobs, up from 139,331 in December 2020, Mr. Kyerematen said.
He added that when the additional 150 factories under construction are completed, the cumulative number of direct and indirect jobs created will reach 282,792.
The 1D1F initiative is the government’s flagship industrialisation programme, part of a Ten Point Agenda to transform the industrial landscape and increase the availability of productive, sustainable jobs.
Since the inception of the initiative in 2017, the government has granted tax exemptions to 37 projects, made up of 14 existing projects being expanded or upgraded, and 23 new projects.
The Minister also disclosed that an amount of GH¢2.69 billion has successfully been mobilised as loans for 1D1F companies from the programme’s participating financial institutions.
The amount has been leveraged through the disbursement by government of GH¢260.9 million to de-risk loans and support interest payment.
As at July 16, 148 companies have benefitted from government facilitated 1D1F loans, Mr. Kyerematen said.
He added that the youth have not been left out of the programme, since 58 factories are fully owned by youth groups who have been mobilised by government and supported with seed funding to establish their own state-of-the-art agro-processing factories in 58 districts, under what is referred to as the Enable Youth 1D1F Initiative, supported by the African Development Bank (AfDB) and International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).
In addition, five medium-scale agro-processing Common User Facilities have been established with funding from AfDB and are owned by groups of farmers in five districts.
Greater Accra has the highest number (76) of 1D1F projects, Ashanti Region has 54, Eastern Region has 37, Central 19, Volta 13, Northern 6, Upper East 7, Western 11, Bono 19, Bono East 10, Upper West 6, Western North 5, Oti 3, Savanna 4, Ahafo 5, and North East 3.