The Minister of Trade and Industry, Alan Kyerematen says government has not sidelined ailing state-owned factories in the implementation of the One District One Factory project.
Mr. Kyeramanten, however, said government is being restricted because of the business module of the initiative which requires some private investment in the state-owned factories.
Though he said on the Citi Breakfast Show that the state had classified ailing ventures like the Komenda Sugar Factor, Aveyime Rice Factory and the Pwalugu Tomato Factor as potential One District One Factory project factories, he said the “government is not interested in still holding on to these companies.”
Mr. Kyerematen said the government required private sector input to keep such companies running.
There are currently 57 of the One District One Factory projects operational out of 181 planned projects.
About 95 percent are local companies while four percent are joint-venture companies.
Mr. Kyerematen said the government was open to local, joint-venture and foreign companies under the One District One Factory project though he said the government has predominantly targeted local companies.
Aside from 22 of the 181 projects, which are under construction, the remaining projects are set to commence implementation before the end of 2019.
The projects set to commence by the end of 2019 include small scale processing facilities, common user processing facilities financed from sources ranging from local private finance initiatives (PFIs), African Development Bank (AfDB) and CNB facility.
Of the 181 factories on the drawing board, 52 of them are existing ones while the remaining 129 have been categorised as new.
Source:Fiilafmonline/Citifm
