Government has met with executives of the Association of Ghana Industries (AGI) to seek the association’s counsel on a number of issues regarding the “One district one factory” policy initiative.
The meeting was also used to discuss the progress of work so far and to seek further input from the association in the development of the modalities for implementing the policy.
The National Coordinator of the project, Mrs Gifty Ohene Konadu, said the government intended to involve the private sector and the AGI in particular in the development of the concept paper to guide the implementation of the policy right from the onset.
“AGI is the umbrella grouping of the Ghanaian industries, comprising companies in the manufacturing, service, and the oil and gas sectors. As the main industrial body, therefore, the One district, one factory Secretariat does not see the AGI only as a partner but also as a pillar that this initiative will thrive on,” she stated.
She said the government had so far been excited about the enthusiasm of the private sector to get involved and contribute to the success of this project.
“Our offices and I guess that of the AGI have been overwhelmed with calls from companies in Ghana and abroad, enquiring and indicating their interest to play a role and even more importantly express interest to establish factories in the districts to support the vision of the President,” she noted.
“We will not like this enthusiasm to die, that is why we are even more eager to commence operations of the project,” she added.
Interventions
Mrs Ohene Konadu also indicated that the policy coordinating office had developed different interventions to address the different needs of the businessmen wanting to establish factories in the districts.
For some, she said the “needs can be marketing, for others it may be raw material supplies, others could be land acquisition and compliance with local laws, and yet for others it can be finance, business linkages etc.”
“Some may require minor interventions since they may have the capacity to set up factories without much support. Others may require active and bigger support,” she pointed out.
She said it was being envisaged that majority of the investments would be provided by international investors while local investors could take advantage of these huge interests from them to establish factories.
In terms of financial models, she said the government was looking at the Public, Private Partnership (PPP), direct equity, and co-investment structures.
She said the details were being worked out and at the appropriate time, they would make it known and allow inputs from the private sector to fine tune it.
“Whatever it is, the coordinating office will provide the right interventions to ensure the success of these businesses at the district level,” she assured.
Collaboration
The National Coordinator also pointed out that it would collaborate with the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development, by virtue of their high presence in the districts, the Ministry of Trade and Industry, the Ministry of Agricultural and a host of other ministries and agencies to deliver the mandate expected.
She said export promotion would also be one of the key objectives of the project, adding that enterprises with strong value chain in the export sector would be its focus as well.
“Here, the Ghana Export Promotion Authority will play an active role as well. The district assemblies in particular, will also play an important role in the entire project implementation process,” she mentioned.
Market access
Former President of AGI, Mr Tony Oteng Gyasi, on behalf of the association, said the biggest challenge of the project would be getting market access.
In creating real value, he said the most difficult obstacle had always been market access.
“Technology you can buy, labour you can employ, know-how you can hire, but the most difficult challenge for anyone trying to enter an economy is getting access to the market,” he stated.
“Especially when we have a market which has been liberalised to the point that everything is being imported. It is likely that all the things the district factories will be producing, there is some people who are importing the same things,” he added.
He said the government, therefore, had to place lots of emphasis on granting the factories that would be established access to market.
He explained that there were processes for doing that and AGI would be very happy to team up with government in coming up with solutions to ensure that the factories that were set up did not become “nine days’ wonder”.
“We are glad that government is consulting us at this early stage,” he added.
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