58 1D1F Projects Begin Operation

Fifty-eight (58) factories have begun operation under the government’s signature One District One Factory (1D1F) programme.

Mr. Ken Ofori-Atta, the Minister of Finance, said 26 others were under construction, with another 97, ready to commence implementation by the close of the year.

To date, 181 projects, are at various levels of implementation and spread over 110 districts across the 16 regions.

Mr. Ofori-Atta announced this, when he presented the 2020 Budget Statement and Economic Policy to Parliament.

The government’s industrial development agenda is anchored on the 1D1F initiative - a programme designed to support the private sector to establish at least one industrial enterprise in each of the 260 districts of the country to add value to their natural resource endowments.

He said much had been achieved since the inception of the programme in 2017 and significant progress had been made towards the achievement of the set target.

He cited parliament’s approved tax incentives including a five-year corporate tax holiday for 1D1F companies, exemption from import duties, taxes and levies on equipment, machinery and parts, and exemptions on payments on raw materials to the private sector business promoters.

Mr. Ofori-Atta said, beyond the 1D1F, the Strategic Anchor Industries Initiative was one of the key components of government’s Industrial Transformation Plan to diversify and transform the economy by creating new pillars of growth and expansion in the industrial sector.

He added that the key strategic industries under the initiative included petrochemical, integrated aluminum and bauxite, iron and steel, vehicle assembly and automotive industry, garments and textiles, pharmaceuticals, vegetable oils and fats, particularly, palm oil, industrial starch from cassava, industrial chemicals based on industrial salt, machinery and equipment manufacturing.