Opposition leader Nana Akufo-Addo has been accused of stealing the idea of establishing a factory per district from the Independent People’s Party (IPP), its flagbearer Kofi Percival Apaloo has stated.

Mr Akufo-Addo, who just ended a five-day tour of the Central Region, promised that should he be elected president of the country, he would ensure all the 216 districts in Ghana benefit from, at least, a factory to create employment and advance the march towards industrialisation.

But Mr Apaloo, speaking on Ghana Yensom on Accra100.5FM on Monday June 20, said the idea was originally the IPP’s, and was promptly copied by the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) after the former launched its manifesto.

The politician explained that the party had outlined in its 2016 manifesto, its ambition to create 180,000 jobs by setting up 250 factories to process raw materials, mainly crops, fish, and meat.

“Actually, Akufo-Addo just picked the idea from me because they’ve got copies of the manifesto... It’s good for…Ghana. It means that people have seen the good in what the IPP intends to do. When they saw our manifesto, they now say they are going to set up factories in every district,” the leader of the only party to have released its manifesto ahead of the November polls said.

He accused the NPP’s leadership of lacking “ideas” hence the decision to stall the release of its manifesto and copy from the IPP.

Asked if the IPP’s desire to establish 250 factories across the country was feasible, Mr Apaloo replied: “We can even build more than 1,000 factories, because if you go and borrow about $10billion and you set up factories and put in place a proper and effective management devoid of political interference, the profits they will make will pay off the debts and create more jobs and more wealth.”

He added that the factories would process and preserve agricultural produce to bring an end to food produce going waste due to post-harvest glut. Mr Apaloo also revealed that the IPP would ensure year-round availability of maize, due to its status as a leading Ghanaian staple, through quarterly cultivations of the crop.