Member of Parliament for Tema West, Carlos Kingsley Ahenkorah has said that a lot of the factories that have been built under the One District One Factory (1D1F) initiative are operating.
This, he said, forms part of the efforts by the Akufo-Addo-led government to industrialize the Ghanaian economy yet, the main opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) behaves as though nothing is being done to provide jobs for the people.
Contributing to a debate on the 2023 budget in Parliament on Wednesday November 30, the former Deputy Minister of Trade revealed that children of some notable members of the NDC have been employed in some of these factories.
If provoked, he said, the government will be forced to mention the names of the NDC members who are benefiting from the 1D1F.
He said “Today, as I speak to you we have close to 300 factories under the Akufo-Addo government. Mr Speaker, out of this 296 or so factories, about 126 of them are operational, 143 are at various stages of construction and 43 pipeline projects.
“Let us assume Mr Speaker, if since 1992, all the presidents that have come to stay on for 8 years, now Akufo-Addo is the 5th President, if every president was bringing or churning out 300 factories in Ghana we will be having 1,500 companies as at today.
“Unfortunately, from 2009 to 2026 the Komenda Sugar factory is the only one that we heard off from the other side (NDC) and yet they have the effrontery to speak to us as if we have not done anything in this country.
“But fortunately for them those who have 1D1F in their constituencies or municipality their own siblings, their own children are working in these factories. I want to point out to them that if they provoke us we will mention names.
“When some president had the opportunity in this fourth republic to ensure that they provide workforce for the youth they rather sold the factories or companies that we had in Ghana.”