‘1-District, 1-Factory’ plan rooted in Kufuor era – Mac Manu

The promise of Nana Akufo-Addo to establish a factory in the 216 districts in Ghana is a well thought out plan that takes its roots from the erstwhile Kufour administration, campaign manager for the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Mr Peter Mac Manu has said.

Nana Akufo-Addo made the commitment while touring the Ajumako/Enyan/Essiam, Mfantseman, and Abura/Asebu/Kwamankese constituencies in the Central Region on Saturday, June 18, during day 3 of his 5-day tour of the region, as part of his campaign activities ahead of this year’s election.

According to him, the setting up of these factories across the country will, not only commence the rapid industrialisation of Ghana’s economy, but also, result in the creation of hundreds of thousands of jobs needed by the masses of unemployed Ghanaian youth.

For this to happen, Nana Akufo-Addo explained that Ghana’s broken monetary and fiscal systems, currently presided over by the Mahama government, would have to be fixed.

While the NPP is relishing the thought of an industrialised and transformed economy in a future Akufo-Addo government, some Ghanaians and analysts remain unconvinced that this latest promise will see the light of day.

But in an interview with Class News, Mr Mac Manu said the promise is not new, but only a revival of plans the NPP had during the Kufour administration.

“It is a well thought out plan. You think we just go and stand on a platform and shout…it’s a well thought out plan and it’s a plan that even takes it roots from the Kufour administration. The genesis of the plan takes its roots from the Kufour administration. If you go and ask the current sector committee chairman for NPP’s campaign 2016 on trade and industry, who was also the Trade and Industries Minister during president Kufour’s era, he laid down the plans and the policies, except that NDC came and threw it away and we are going to bring it back and revive it, so, it is something that we started and we are going to revive and bring it back – that every district will have a factory based on the potentials within that district…” he told Class News’ Naa Deedei Tettey.

Mr Mac Manu said the type of factory in each district will depend on the potential and the resources of the district.

“I don’t have the details for you…but the …factory will be cited based on the potential and the resources, both manpower and materials, within that particular district, and the feasibility and the write-up and everything have been done before. It has been shelved and we say we are going to reactivate it”.

Asked how the NPP will generate money for the construction of the factories in each district, Mr Mac Manu noted that the political will of the NPP to see the project through when elected was more important than the question of cost.

“Cost, that’s all you know. Do you know how much Komenda sugar factory cost before it was released at $25million? We are not going to be bogged down by cost. We have the will and that is the most important thing. The political will to execute any plans and implement them, that is more important than [the question of] do we have money.

“Money has been wasted in this country, monies have been thrown away on bus branding, have we spoken about that? And we are going to invest in such a meaningful project and you are asking me do we have the money? How much haven’t we borrowed over the last eight years? Where has the money gone? Industry and manufacturing is now minus in the GDP of this country, why aren’t we talking about that and you are asking [about] money; monies we will find, money is there”.