Trade and Industry Minister, Alan John Kwadwo Kyerematen, has outlined government’s responsibility in the One District One Factory (1D1F) policy.
Emphasising that the policy is largely a private led initiative, Mr Kyeremanten said government has a responsibility to ensure its implementation was successful.
The minister was responding to a question asked in Parliament yesterday, by Member of Parliament (MP) for Buem, Daniel Kwesi Ashiamah, who wanted to know government’s role in the policy, which aims at establishing a factory in each of the 254 districts of the country.
Mr Kyerematen said government’s core responsibility was to create the enabling environment for the establishment of the industries.
He said government was expected to identify both local and foreign financial institutions to provide financing support to entrepreneurs under the initiative, as well as facilitating negotiations with participating financial institutions for medium and long term financial support.
Mr Kyerematen said government would invest “not more than 30 per cent equity in district enterprises where required”, and “ensure timely release of budget allocation meant to support the district enterprise with infrastructure such as power, water and access to road.”
In terms of access to market, the minister stressed that government would facilitate negotiations with both local and foreign off-takers, facilitate negotiations with public sector organisations as anchor customers using the local content policy.
Mr Kyerematen stated that “Government will use the Ghana Export Promotion Authority and Ghana missions abroad to support the development of export markets for companies established under the programme.”
He said government would establish existing profiles of the natural resource endowments of each region and identify business promoters and potential investors interested in participating in the 1D1F.
Mr Kyerematen said government will review and select business plans and proposals submitted by potential investors who would respond to the eligibility criteria proposed under the initiative, as well as monitor the status of implementation of each district enterprise project against key performance indicators.
Reacting to another question asked by Keta MP, Richard Quashigah, on the implementation plan for the 1D1F, Mr Kyerematen said the cost of each project would be determined by the basis of the business plan.
“Mr Speaker, it is envisaged that on the average, [the cost] would range between US$1 million and US$10 million,” the minister said.
He said since a significant number of 1D1F projects were agro-industrial projects, government would provide incentives for the production and supply quality, competitively priced agricultural raw materials as inputs into the processing activity of the projects.