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The one district-one factory promise of the Akufo-Addo government might not be realised, US Ambassador to Ghana Robert P Jackson has said.

“President Akufo-Addo’s vision of one district-one factory may not be realised in his first term or even his second, if there is one, but the idea is exactly what is needed to get beyond aid – that you have to industrialise, that you build your industrial base, that you create jobs so that people do not want to trek across the desert and be potentially enslaved in Libya or even if they make it to Libya, drown in the Mediterranean”, Mr Jackson said on 21 Minutes.

As far as President Akufo-Addo’s Ghana Beyond Aid aim is concerned, Mr Jackson said: “We need to make Ghana attractive for young people to stay here and see that they can be entrepreneurs, that they can have a real bright future here”.

Meanwhile, Mr Jackson says President Akufo-Addo is more visionary than some of Ghana’s recent leaders.

“I do think that he is more visionary than some recent Ghanaian leaders”.

Asked if that meant that Mr Akufo-Addo’s immediate predecessor John Mahama was not visionary, Mr Jackson said: “I think ex-president Mahama had a vision, too, so, I want to give him credit where credit is due, his emphasis was on infrastructure, which is very important – schools, clinics, hospitals, roads, President Mahama did a lot for this country.

He continued: “President Akufo-Addo’s focus on the private sector and making the private sector the engine of growth rather than government being the driving force is how I see the difference between the two of them. Both of them had visions for the country, I think President Akufo-Addo’s vision of private sector-led growth is likely to create more jobs and propel the economy forward faster than the infrastructure investments but the infrastructure investments were important”.