Ghanaian actor cum politician,John Dumelo, has raised pertinent questions about the amount of funds the government has injected into the One District One Factory (1D1F) Programme.
He called on President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to make known to the nation how far his administration has gone with the 1D1F programme in terms of the amount of money spent on the project and the number of factories built.
John Dumelo indicated that it took him nine months for him to establish his ginger factory yet the government has not laid even a block to fulfil their factory promise to the people of the Oti region after being in power for almost eight years.
“How much has the government spent on 1D1F so far? How many factories are fully functional and operational? Which specific product (being produced here in Ghana) as a result of the 1D1F initiative has reduced our import bill?
“My ginger factory in Oti is not and cannot be under 1D1F. We built that factory under 9 Months. It’s almost 8 years and the government hasn’t even laid a block to fulfil their ginger factory promise to the people of Oti,” John Dumelo wrote on his X page.
Background
According to the Minister of Trade and Industry, Kobina Tahir Hammond, from 2017 to date, 296 projects under the One District, One Factory (1D1F) Programme were at various stages of implementation.
The breakdown included 126 companies in operation, 143 companies under construction and 27 companies were pipeline projects.
K.T Hammond made the disclosure on Tuesday on the floor of Parliament in response to a question by Desmond De-Graft Paitoo, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) Member of Parliament (MP) for Gomoa East.
The MP wanted to know from the Minister how many factories had been built so far by the Government under the One District, One Factory (1D1F) Programme and how many of these factories are in partnership with private companies or organisations.
He reiterated that out of the 296 factories under the programme, 233 projects were established by private-sector business promoters with the active facilitation of the Government, while 63 1D1F projects were established directly by the Government.
“Mr Speaker, it must be noted that the Government’s active facilitation of the private sector investment in 1D1F projects consists of special incentives including tax exemptions and the provisions of interest subsidies on loans granted by Participating Financial Institutions (PFIs). It also includes, where applicable, the extension of critical utilities such as access to electricity and water,” said K.T Hammond.
He added that the 63 Government-established 1D1F factories were agro-processing facilities financed with the support of the African Development Bank (AfDB) and International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) under the Ministry’s Rural Enterprise Programme (REP).
Source: ghanaweb.com
