Eight commit GH¢2.5 billion in support of IDIF

Eight local financial institutions have committed a total of GH¢2.5 billion in support of the government’s “One District, One Factory (1D1F)” programme, Deputy Trade and Industry Minister, Robert Ahomkah-Lindsay, has announced.

In all, 700 business plans had been received and out of the figure 618 had been reviewed and 319 of them deemed bankable – certain to bring profit and success, by the experts.

Included in these are over 200 existing factories, requiring expansion and collapsed ones that need to be revived.

The Deputy Minister hinted at giving a GH¢22 million support to the defunct Darko Farms, which was employing about 800 people.    

This was at the launch of the District Implementation Support Teams (DISTs) of the 1D1F in Ho.

He said Ghanaians constituted 90 per cent of those, who had expressed interest in the implementation of the project.

He expressed optimism that every district was going to have a factory by the close of year 2020, saying they “are on course”.

The expectation was that this would create in excess of 291,000 jobs.

The Deputy Minister indicated that 11 factories would be built in the Volta Region by the end of this year.

He added that their target for 2018 was to start work on 100 new factories and expand existing ones across all the 10 regions.

He renewed the call to traditional authorities to make lands available to feed the factories as 46 per cent of proposals received involved agro-processing.

Dr Archibald Yao Letsa, Volta Regional Minister, underlined the government’s determination to promote aggressive industrialization to transform the economy.

That remained the way forward to tackle the growing unemployment and create wealth.

He asked the DISTs to work assiduously to ensure that the region got its share of factories.

The Teams would help to facilitate land acquisition and registration and the needed infrastructure for the smooth take off of the factories.