By
Maxwell Awumah, GNA
Ho, Nov. 12, GNA – Cynicism
in Government’s flagship One-District-One-Factory (1D1F) policy is a clear
demonstration of lack of self-believe and worth undermining Ghanaians’ ability
to understand the policy to create jobs for themselves and not government, Mr
Delali Ndo, Chairman, Advisory Committee on Investment in the Volta Region has
said.
He said, “My
understanding of the 1D1F policy, is an expression of the President’s
confidence in the Ghanaian to rise to the challenges of the time, so, if I
stand expecting the President to come and establish a factory for me, I am
telling myself, I lack the ability to meet the challenge because the factory
will not belong to the President, and I will remain in poverty.”
The Advisory
Committee Chairman said Government’s decision was purely trade facilitation and
re-engineering in the 1D1F policy framework and not the establishment of new
factories from ground zero.
Mr Ndo who was
speaking to the Ghana News Agency in an interview said the policy, came in
three categories, those with existing venture needing financial re-engineering;
investors with money to invest from scratch; and those with venture and
entrepreneurial concepts needing alignment with the government facilitation and
enablers for a smooth take-off.
Mr Ndo said Reagvin
Company, is doing the production of ethanol and cassava chips at Tokokoe, in
the Ho Municipality, are already existing projects that had been grafted for
financial reengineering under the 1D1F.
He said ‘Letters of
Credit’ had been given to Reagvin to access funds to expand and others are in
similar pipelines.
Mr Ndo said
establishing a factory was a complex venture demanding adequate planning and a
sustainable raw material base, which was crucial to that business to thrive.
“Real thinking must
go into the establishment of factories,” to avoid the repeat of the Juapong
Textile Factory scenario, where the raw material base is weak rendering it
unproductive for many years now, he said.
Mr Ndo said as with
every business, the 1D1F project started with a business plan with serious
demands for technical and budgeting processes for implementation.
He said it was an
evolutionary trend in response to statehood, to which every Ghanaian must take
advantage of, to fight poverty, which had no political colour but many mouths
to feed.
Mr Ndo said nine out
of 23 projects had been selected by a South African company for funding with
some interests too from Chinese and Swedish companies, who had jointly
expressed interests to partner entrepreneurs and businesses to set-up in the
region.
Mr Ndo said some
businesses and entrepreneurs from the National Democratic Congress (NDC) have
also applied to be part of the scheme and said “these are matters of bread
and butter and not politics.”
Mrs Josephine
Dzotsi, Volta Regional Director of Trade and Industry (MOTI) told the Ghana
News Agency in another interview that about 33 projects has come under 1D1F
project in the region and her office continued to receive more applications.
She said four of the
Companies were currently operational in the region, two of which were already
in existence.
They include Goshen
Company, which is into the production of large-scale maize at Torgorme and KOP
Farms, all in the North Tongu District; with Caltec, producing ethanol and
cassava chips at Hodzo and IC Agritec with a fish farm both in the Ho
Municipality.
Mrs Dzotsi said MOTI
was still negotiating with the banks to get interests rates to a single digit
for applicants of the 1D1F policy explaining that delays associated with
accessing the funds was due to diligence being deployed by the financial
institutions to avoid wastage and paying monies into wrongful hands.
Dr Archibald Yao
Letsa, Volta Regional Minister said in an interview that Government’s role in
the 1D1F policy framework was trade or business facilitation, far from leading
the charge to establish factories.
He said these
misconceptions are causing confusion in the minds of the public and needed to
be addressed by the media.
GNA
