The government has estimated Gh¢456.3 million to roll out its much talked about One-district-One-Factory policy, the Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta has announced.
According to the Minister, the policy has been penciled to start in 2017 and will provide 216 “medium to large scale factories in each district.”
The initiative will be driven largely by the “private sector.” He said an estimated 350,000 jobs will be created under the project.
The aim of the policy is to ensure that Ghana’s ongoing industrialization drive spreads to every part of the country, as opposed to the hitherto situation where the vast majority of manufacturing facilities are located in the five largest urban areas, namely Accra, Tema, Kumasi, Takoradi and Tamale.
It was a key campaign policy for the New Patriotic Party (NPP) during the 2016 elections.
The new government has given the go ahead for the one district one factory implementation to be managed by collaboration between the public and private sectors through an organization which will specifically be set up for that purpose.
In a related development, a budget of Gh¢94.5m has been set aside for the One-Village-One-Dam project which will also kick off this year. It is to ensure all year round farming and food security while small and medium scale irrigation schemes will be identified or rehabilitated.
