Fifty-eight factories have been completed and currently in operation under the government’s One District-One Factory industrialisation programme, Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta has told Parliament.

Presenting the 2020 budget on Wednesday, 13 November 2019, Mr Ofori-Atta said: “Mr Speaker, the government’s industrial development agenda is anchored on the One District-One Factory (1D1F) initiative, a programme designed to support the private sector to establish at least one (1) industrial enterprise in each of the 260 districts of the country to add value to their natural resource endowments”.

According to him, “Much has been achieved since the inception of the programme in 2017”.

He said “significant progress has been made toward the achievement of the set target”, adding: “To date, 181 projects are at various levels of implementation spread over 110 districts across the 16 regions”. 

“Fifty-eight out of the number are in operation, 26 projects are under construction, while 97 projects are ready to commence implementation by the end of 2019”, Mr Ofori-Atta explained.

He said “as a result of the intervention by government, in 2018 this august house approved the following tax incentives to the private sector business promoters: 5-years corporate tax holiday for 1D1F companies, exemption from import duties, taxes and levies on equipment, machinery, and parts; exemptions from payment of duties and levies on raw materials”.

“This is real change”, the minister said.

“Mr Speaker, beyond 1D1F, the Strategic Anchor Industries Initiative is one of the key components of our Industrial Transformation Plan to diversify and transform the economy by creating new pillars of growth and expansion in the industrial sector.

“The key strategic industries under the initiative are: petrochemical, integrated aluminium and bauxite, iron and steel, vehicle assembly and automotive industry, garments and textiles, pharmaceuticals, vegetable oils and fats (in particular oil palm), industrial starch from cassava, industrial chemicals based on industrial salt, machinery and equipment manufacturing”, he added.