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The governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) has urged Ghanaians particularly the youth to must take steps to secure for “ourselves an industrial economy by voting overwhelmingly for President Akufo-Addo” in the upcoming December 7 polls.
According to the party, the most determined push to industrialize Ghana’s economy since President Nkrumah was witnessed under the presidency of Akufo-Addo who in 2017 launched an ambitious industrialization policy dubbed one district, one factory (1D,1F).
“This industrial push, coupled with free SHS and the systematic digitization of Ghanaian social and economic processes, will very much…secure for ourselves a country where no youth is uneducated, with a vibrant industrial economy and a modernized digital society,” a member of the NPP’s communication team, Nana Akomea said on Monday, November 9, 2020, while addressing a press conference in Accra dubbed: “Industrial Transformation A Promise Kept And Being Delivered.”
Some 76 1D, 1F factories are in operation as of July 2020, across the country. Of these, 28 are new factories, while 48 are existing factories that have taken advantage of the 1D1F scheme to expand and add on new production units. In all, a total of 232 factories are also at various stages of completion.
Going hand in hand with the 1D1F is the policy of Strategic Anchor Industries, which provides for government partnership with private investors to build carefully selected large scale strategic anchor industries that will serve as growth poles for an industrial economy.
This policy will select products on which Ghana spends millions of dollars to import and to target the setting up of industries to produce these products locally.
Dubbed ‘Import Substitution’, the policy has been a major contributor to the economies of several poor countries that have transitioned into middle and high-income economies.
“The selected “Anchor” industries would include the heavy import ones, like rice, sugar, canned tomato, chicken processing, etc, but will also include heavy industries such as Bauxite Processing and Automobile,” explained Akomea who is also the Managing Director of STC Ghana Limited.
He said the push for automotive development is already attracting investment from global brands such as Toyota, Volkswagen, and Sinotruck.
The local investor Kantanka has also been granted tax incentives and necessary licenses and policy support to make inroads in the local automotive market.
Source: Daily Mail GH