By: Joel Sanco
The flagship One District One Factory (1D1F) policy under the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) has been revealed as being the brainchild of leader of the Movement for Change, Alan Kyerematen.
Senior Advisor to Alan Kyerematen, Nana Ohene-Ntow made this revelation in an interview with Happy98.9FM’s Bismark Brown on the ‘Epa Hoa Daben’ political show.
“1D1F was Alan Kyerematen’s idea before it went into the NPP manifesto, and the party itself will testify to that. That is the reason then candidate Akufo-Addo promised Alan would be his first ministerial appointee when he became president, hence his position as Trade Minister. It was his idea,” Nana Ohene-Ntow reiterated.
Per Alan Kyerematen’s proposal, the 1D1F project was scheduled to be in two-tiers. The first tier being the provision of support to existing industries in distress. The support ranged from consulting services, financial, equipment and human resources. The two major reasons out of the lot for supporting existing industries in distress were to strengthen them to acquire export potential and create employment for the country’s teeming youth.
The second tier of the 1D1F project as envisioned by Alan Kyerematen was the provision of support for startups to grow. But the 1D1F project did not enjoy the success as wished by Alan Kyerematen says Nana Ohene-Ntow.
“As part of plans Alan had for the 1D1F project, the Ministry of Trade engaged some banks which would provide financial support for these industries and startups. The plan was for the government to support these banks financially and the banks would then provide loans to the industries and startups at low interest rates. Alan met with several of these banks and made this proposal which many of the banks agreed to. However, after the arrangements were finalized and Alan signed MOUs with banks, government made a turn around, saying they had no monies to support the banks. Government asked the banks to support the industries with their own monies at reduced interest rates,” Nana Ohene-Ntow stated.
Presently, 120 industries out of the 200 which were to receive support under the 1D1F project are functional and Nana Ohene-Ntow credits them to Alan Kyerematen’s resilience and go getter attitude. “Only Alan Kyerematen knows how he acquired resources to make the 120 industries operational. Alan Kyerematen did not receive as much support as promised by government for the implementation of 1D1F. If the government had truly supported the project as promised, the existing industries would have found their feet within a space a two years, creating employment and increasing the country’s export capacity.”
