Gov’t Disburses US$237mn to 16 Companies under 1D1F

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo on Wednesday announced that US$237 million had so far been disbursed to 16 companies under the One District, One Factory (1D1F) Initiative, while additional five companies are being considered for support to boost the country’s industrialisation drive.

Systematically, he said, government was rolling out the 1D1F industrialisation programme, with 79 projects so far being implemented, while 134 projects were undergoing credit appraisal from officials of the Ministry of Trade and Industry.

President Akufo-Addo announced this when he met a cross-section of the media at the Jubilee House, the Seat of Government, in Accra, on Wednesday, to render account of his 23 months stewardship.

The President answered questions on the various sectors of the economy, ranging from the economy, health and cyber security, as well as the implementation of government’s flagship programmes such as 1D1F, Free Senior High School policy, digitisation of the various public sector institutions to formalise the economy and other pressing national issues.

Touching on health, President Akufo-Addo said government had paid GHc1.2 billion arrears inherited from the previous administration for the operations of the National Health Insurance Scheme.

He said the country was in the process of securing most advanced medical drones for distribution of blood and other essential medicines to hard-to-reach areas across the country.

He said four operational centres would be created, which would distribute 148 life-saving and essential medical supplies, noting that, it would save lives, decrease waste in the system and have access to more than 140 million people nationwide and also employ over 200 Ghanaians.

The programme, he said, would not be run on public purse because corporate entities would fund it through their corporate social obligation.

‘‘I prefer drones delivering blood and essential medicines to our people than investment in guinea fowls,’’ the President added.

Commenting on measures to formalise and modernise the economy, President Akufo-Addo mentioned the implementation of the paperless ports system, mobile money interoperability payment system and national property addressing system, as well as the national identification card (Ghana Card), which is the fairest and fastest way of modernising the economy and enhance productivity.

On the education front, President Akufo-Addo said every child deserved better education and announced that government, through the Ghana Education Trust Fund, had secured $1.5 billion facility to help the development of school infrastructure.

He noted that the first tranche of the facility would be used to build more classroom blocks, laboratories and other essential educational facilities to give schools the appropriate facilities, which meet modern standards.

He assured of government’s determination to produce well-trained workforce, who would be competitive on the world stage.

Source: GNA