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National Coordinator for One-District-One-Factory, Mrs. Gifty Ohene Konadu, has urged chiefs and traditional leaders not to release disputed lands for the building of the government’s flagship projects in their communities that will put government into trouble in the future.

She maintained that the government will not build the factories on “any land which was under serious litigation which in the end can stall the progress of the implementation of the government’s flagship project.”

Speaking in an interview with Today at the sidelines of a press conference in Accra last Monday to update the public about the progress of government’s flagship project, Mrs. Konadu cited an instance where some government projects were left under the mercy of the whether as a result of litigation on the lands, adding that “our aim is not to create white elephant projects.”

According to Mrs. Konadu, her outfit has been in constant consultations with the chiefs and traditional leaders in many communities who had expressed interest to support the government’s One-District-One-Factory policy.

Additionally, she pointed out that her outfit was not in a hurry to create unnecessary noise among the people, cutting sod here and there when preparatory works for the various projects have not been completed.

According to her, the Secretariat of One-District-One-Factory will only go ahead to keep the public informed when preparatory works on the various projects in the regions are concluded. “I don’t want to create white elephants so we will not cut sods just to excite the people. At the appropriate time when we have addressed all the teething problems, we will line up the projects and cut sod to begin construction of the projects,” she noted. On August 25, 2017, the One-District-One-Factory Secretariat launched its first project, a pineapple processing factory at Ekumfi in the Central Region.

The scope of the project covers the setup of a processing plant, pack houses, warehousing, storage units, packaging units and distribution terminals. An outgrower development scheme is also included to ensure constant supply and security of raw materials. The projects are expected to be completed between six months to a year.

According to Mrs. Konadu, she has been able to make noise about the Ekumfi project because all the necessary arrangements including financial cover have been secured, stressing that the secretariat does not intend to create white elephant factories. She said the secretariat has so far engaged with different institutions whose activities are linked in one way or the other to the successful implementation of the government’s policy.

She averred that her outfit has also engaged some key ministries including the ministry of trade, finance, monitoring and evaluation and local government to seek their support and approval for tax incentives, duty exemptions and related issues conducive for survival of infant industries.