Minister of Trade and Industry Kobina Tahir Hammond is blaming Parliament for the struggles some factories under the One-District One-Factory Initiative are facing.
He said some of the incentives needed to be ratified to boost these factories have been left unattended to by the legislative arm of government.
“Let me tell you, horror of horrors, part of the problem also emanates from the Parliament of the Republic of Ghana,” he noted on Ghana Tonight on Wednesday, June 14 in an exclusive interview with host Alfred Ocansey.
“Remember I am a senior member of the august House, so if I say that some of the problems are from there, I know what I am talking about.”
He mentioned the import waivers promised factories under the policy as one of the first incentives under the initiative that Parliament failed to approve.
“The only institution in the whole country mandated by the Constitution to be able to provide that kind of incentive is Parliament,” he admitted.
“The applications have been made through the Ministry [of Trade and Industry]. The Ministry handed these applications to the Finance Ministry. The Finance Ministry handed a good chunk of these to Parliament and for two years now, Parliament hasn’t been able to sit,” he said, expressing worry that even the Finance Committee has not decided on the matter let alone to be tabled before plenary.
“That’s the difficulty. As many as a 100 of these issues are still pending in Parliament. So, you see the difficulty.”
[State of 1D1F]
Part of the problem of the 1District 1Factory project is from the parliament of Ghana. Parliament has not fast tracked incentives needed to facilitate the establishment of these factories – K.T Hammond #GhanaTonight pic.twitter.com/RXq81cTvyI
— #TV3GH (@tv3_ghana) June 15, 2023
The Adansi Asokwa Member of Parliament insisted that all the factories would have been more viable if steps have been taken by Parliament to grant them these waivers, for instance.
He also indicated that but for the Covid-19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine war, some of the factories would have been ding well.
But he observed that a majority of them have survived.
