50 companies to start production by end of 2018– Osafo-Maafo

The Senior Minister Yaw Osafo-Maafo has said that 50 companies will start production under the government’s One District;One Factory (1D1F) programme before the end of 2018.

He was speaking at a breakfast meeting in Accra on Tuesday, July 31, 2018.

He said “So far 15 projects have been approved for implementation under the 1D1F… We expect that by end of this year, 50 of those which have been appraised will be in production.”

The Minister said they have received 781 expressions of interest, out of which 632 have been reviewed and 332 are currently being processed for financial support.

He added that some banks have also expressed their commitment to providing funding for the projects which “will have to be appraised by the banks because the 1D1F is all in the domain of the private sector, not the government.”

“What the government has decided is that it will absorb 50 percent of the interest rates of these 1D1F companies so that determining what is bankable will be done by the professionals. When you have been appraised, shortlisted and you have qualified, the cost of money to you will be shared between the government and yourself,” he added.

The governing NPP promised to create more jobs during the 2016 campaign season. This was to help address the unemployment other economic challenges by undertaking a massive industrialisation campaign across the country.