According to Carlos Kingsley Ahenkorah, a former member of parliament for Tema West, Ghana should have 1,500 factories by now if previous presidents had implemented the One District One Factory (ID1F) project as planned.
He claimed that while Akufo-Addo has so far constructed 126 factories that are fully operational and 143 that are in various stages of completion, the main opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) can boast of just one factory, the Komenda Sugar Factory.
On Wednesday, November 30, he made this statement while participating in a discussion in Parliament about the budget for 2023.
The former Deputy Minister of Trade 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.
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“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.”