The Trade and Industry Minister-designate, Alan Kyerematen, has revealed the jobs created by government under the One District, One Factory (IDIF) initiative.
“Through the intervention of 1D1F, 139,331 direct and indirect jobs have so far been created by the 76 companies that are already operational,” he told the Appointments Committee of Parliament during his vetting on Friday, February 26, 2021.
He indicated that, about 285,915 direct and indirect jobs are projected from the projects that are under construction.
He also indicated that 68 of the 232 1D1F projects are existing companies.
The 1D1F is a private sector-led initiative introduced by President Nana Akufo-Addo to create the necessary conducive environment for businesses to access funding from financial institutions and other support services from government agencies so as to establish factories and production units in the various districts of the country.
“Currently we have 232 1D1F projects at various stages of implementation. Contrary to comments that 1D1F is just an attempt to brush up on existing companies, if you look at the statistics, only 64 of the 232 companies are existing, 168 of them are new companies,” he said.
The Trade and Industry Minister-designate added that the 1D1F initiative is one of the most revolutionary programmes since Ghana’s independence.
“It is appropriate for me to indicate that the One District, One Factory initiative, which has been led by the Ministry of Trade and Industry is one of the most revolutionary interventions to have been introduced in our country since independence. It goes to the core of bringing industry and development to the doorsteps of ordinary people and that is why we pursued this whole programme with aggression,” Mr Kyerematen stated.
It seeks to change Ghana’s economic structure from import dependent by adding value to raw materials for export.