Universal banks earmark GH¢4.5bn to support 1D1F

A number of universal banks have earmarked GH¢4.5 billion to support the government’s flagship industrialisation programme, one-district, one-factory (1D1F).

A Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry, Mr Robert Ahomka-Lindsay, disclosed this on the final day of the 3rd National Policy Summit in Kumasi. He said already, 37 individual businesses had started under the programme, with 95 proposals pending before the “credit committee of the banks”.
That, he explained, meant that the proposals were in the final stages of financial assessment and would be assisted to raise the necessary funds for them to take off.
Mr Ahomka-Lindsay said the government was bent on delivering on the one-district, one-factory by 2020.

Interest
The deputy minister noted that currently, 800 business plans from the private sector had been received by a specialised team from the ministry, out of which 700 had been reviewed.
Out of the figure, 400 were commercially viable, while 260 of them needed to be propped up to meet the requirement, he said.
Mr Ahomka-Lindsay stated that 45 per cent of businesses were agro-based, with only 24 per cent in manufacturing.

Bailout
Speaking on the theme: “The government's industrial transformational agenda”, the deputy minister said the government was ready to revitalise “commercially viable, but distressed companies to create jobs.”
He added that the only way to accommodate the country's increasing population was to industrialise to create jobs for the youth.