Though some doubts were entertained as to the feasibility of government’s proposed ‘One District, One Factory’ industrialisation programme, news by our Northern regional correspondent filtering in from Tamale suggests strongly that the programme is gearing up to take-off in the northern ecological zone as preparations are finalised.
Implementation teams, we are told, have been established across the 26 Metropolitan, Municipal, and District Assemblies of the Northern Region – and these teams are to oversee the work.
Chief Executives of MMDCEs chair the teams with members of Parliament assisting – and all of this goes to prove how serious the programme is, as it is being rolled out in the second year of the president’s four-year mandated term of office.
By now, Ghanaians have been made fully-aware of government’s intention to set up at least one medium-to-large-scale industrial enterprise in each of the country’s 216 MMDAs. This is government’s vision to revive the country’s industrial base – which has declined to almost non-existence – and in the process provide job opportunities for the teeming mass of unemployed youth across the length and breadth of the nation.
In an interaction with the Ministry of Trade and Industry’s (MoTI) Regional Officer, our correspondent was told of proposals forwarded to commercial banks for them to study and see where they can be of assistance to boost the business activity of these factories.
Northern Ghana is a breadbasket region for the country, and since most of these industrial concerns are to be agro-based we have little doubt that investors will be trooping to Tamale and its environs to assess the viability of setting up medium-to large scale factories to add value to raw agricultural produce and begin earning some decent foreign exchange from exporting same.
The project will address two critical issues of immense importance to the economy – which are setting up a manufacturing base, as well as creating jobs for the youth and thereby bringing development closer to the doorstep of every Ghanaian.
We are confident the commercial banks will find a number of the projects are bankable and worth the investment, so there is little doubt that soon factories will be springing up around the country to propel economic growth and lead the country toward a Ghana Beyond Aid.
With implementation teams in place, we see very little reason why the one factory in every district programme cannot take-off smoothly.
