One District One Factory Now Under Ministry of Trade and Industry - John Boadu

Acting General Secretary of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP), John Boadu has disclosed that the flagship One District-One Factory programme has been moved to the Trade and Industry ministry under the care of John Alan Kyerematen.

According to the acting NPP General Secretary, the One-District-One Factory programme which President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo at the beginning of his appointment entrusted to Hon. Mavis Hawa Koomson under the Special Development Initiative is no longer under her supervision.

Speaking on Okay FM’s 'Ade Akye Abia' Morning Show on Monday about how serious the Akufo-Addo government is to create jobs in the country, he underscored that the purpose of shifting the One District-One Factory project to the Trade and Industry Ministry is to take time to do it well.

“When you look into the 2018 budget, you will realise that the One District-One Factory project, we have shift it to the Ministry of Trade and Industry so that it can start well; and not that we are doing it anyhow, and to make it stand the test of time,” John Boadu said.

In comparison to Ayensu Starch Factory, the NPP Acting General Secretary stated that Akufo-Addo’s government does not want to entertain challenges with the One District-One Factory as the Ayensu Starch Factory went through at the initial stage with raw materials.

He stressed that a lot of companies require the starch which Ayensu Starch Factory produces and the factory is producing in large quantities due to government's further policy to give tax incentive to local businesses dealing in starch.

“Before you demand for locally manufactured products, they must be available in such quantity and in quality and the price people can get all the time to produce more of the raw materials. These are the things we are working on so that the One District-One Factory project will be effective,” John Boadu said.

He was of the conviction that the One District-One Factory project and others that Akufo-Addo’s government has mentioned will not be just rhetoric, as it is at the back of the mind of the NPP government that it will render its stewardship to Ghanaians in 3 years time.

“ . . . I believe strongly that we are not just making public speech, because we know that in three (3) years we will come back to Ghanaian people to account for our stewardship; to account for our manifesto promises we made . . . and I will be happy that once in a while, the media will be reminding us of what we said we are going to do,” he assured.